Racism, Young-Earth Creationism, and the New World Order<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I have had comments on things I have posted on the blog and on Facebook,\u00a0from commenters whom I don't know and who've never to my knowledge posted on my\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2016\/07\/racism-young-earth-creationism-and-the-new-world-order.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Racism, Young-Earth Creationism, and the New World Order\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I have had comments on things I have posted on the blog and on Facebook,\u00a0from commenters whom I don't know and who've never to my knowledge posted on my\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2016\/07\/racism-young-earth-creationism-and-the-new-world-order.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Religion Prof: The Blog of James F. 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{"id":35298,"date":"2016-07-10T15:08:19","date_gmt":"2016-07-10T19:08:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/exploringourmatrix\/?p=35298"},"modified":"2016-07-10T15:08:19","modified_gmt":"2016-07-10T19:08:19","slug":"racism-young-earth-creationism-and-the-new-world-order","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2016\/07\/racism-young-earth-creationism-and-the-new-world-order.html","title":{"rendered":"Racism, Young-Earth Creationism, and the New World Order"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

In both cases, the claim is on one level essentially the same. The truth is there to be seen; those who did the research are part of a conspiracy to cover up the truth; and yet\u00a0what they published publicly nonetheless gives people with insight everything they need to see through the conspiracy to the truth.<\/p>\n

Conspiracy theories are not just found among white racists; people of color subscribe to them too. And conspiracy theories are not just found among young-earth creationists; secular people and atheists subscribe to them too<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The truth is that\u00a0we don\u2019t have access to bare, uninterpreted facts, and that \u201cscientific studies prove\u201d that scientific studies don\u2019t \u201cprove\u201d anything<\/a>. It has been ironic to have someone who apparently has no idea who I am nonetheless\u00a0comment on my Facebook wall, misconstrue what I am saying, and insist that they have forgotten more about what they learned about epistemology than I have ever known.<\/p>\n

What interests me most is\u00a0why<\/em> they would assert that when they apparently have no idea who I am or that I even have an academic background, never mind what it is in. It illustrates that even (and sometimes especially) educated people can engage in motivated reasoning. The individual in question clearly has a deeply vested interest in avoiding the conclusion that racism could in any way be a factor in the numbers of unarmed black males who are shot by police. But\u00a0why<\/em> would someone care so much that they would engage in that difficult and\u00a0if not impossible task of making that case? What makes that more appealing than the no less\u00a0arduous task of revising your worldview to include the fact that racism plays a role in our society?<\/p>\n

I suspect that one major factor is communal. Individuals would presumably have less vested interest in denying evolution or racism if doing so would not impact their acceptance in communities of which they are a part.<\/p>\n

But no scientific study can\u00a0prove<\/em> that that is what is going on.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, there are studies and perspectives which, if people are open to them, can help us to see what is going on, as long as we are willing to apply it to our own reasoning and not just that of others with whom we are already inclined to disagree. For instance, Connor Wood had a great post a while back about dogmatic atheism and religious fundamentalism<\/a>, which included this flow chart that depicts what we find in both:<\/p>\n

$\"Kossowska_2016_uncertainty_dogmatism\"$ <\/p>\n

See too Jonny Scaramanga\u2019s honest post<\/a> recognizing that he is still a fundamentalist at heart.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"