That's WEIRD!
I was reading this description of the book, Battling the Gods: Atheism in the Ancient World by Tim Whitmarsh
and it got me thinking:
“How new is atheism? Although adherents and
opponents alike today present it as an invention of the European Enlightenment,
when the forces of science and secularism broadly challenged those of faith,
disbelief in the gods, in fact, originated in a far more remote past.”
Atheism is
considered an invention of the European Enlightenment? Really? Have they never
heard of entire religions founded on the basis of atheism and agnostism
(Jainism and Buddhism)?!
But those
religions are from the East. And most Westerners only know, well, the West.
Daniel Kahneman even coined a term for this tendency to form conclusions based
on what you see without checking if there are other things to look at: What You
See Is All There Is (WYSIATI)!
The WYSIATI
problem has been recognized in many psychology and social science “conclusions”
based on tests done with participants who are WEIRD. Not “weird” as in strange;
but WEIRD as in the participants being Western, Educated, from Industrialized, Rich,
Democratic countries! As this Slate
article put it:
“Thinking about the source of the data for
a lot of hyped, overinterpreted psychology research puts the results into a whole
new light.”
Sometimes,
experiments overcome this problem by luck. In his book, The Upside of Irrationality, Dan Ariely talked of a study that was
done in India rather than the US because it was cheaper that way! Ariely also
has apps for both Android and iOS that you can download if you want to
participate in his studies: that obviously diversifies his sample to be a bit
more of a global sample.
Others acknowledge
this problem and consciously seek to understand other parts of the world. Like
Jonathan Haidt, author of terrific books like The Happiness Hypothesis and The
Righteous Mind. He talks extensively
of both Western and Eastern philosophies and morality in both his books. In
fact, Haidt spent time in Orissa to live in a different culture and imbue it
and thus understand their perspective better. And boy, does that show up in
both his books, especially in The
Righteous Mind.
I guess the social
sciences have a long way to go if most of its conclusions are based on the
WYSIATI errors and WEIRD people!
The blogs says, "Atheism is considered an invention of the European Enlightenment? Really? Have they never heard of entire religions founded on the basis of atheism and agnosticism (Jainism and Buddhism)?!"
ReplyDeleteBy now some of the Westerners might have an inkling that, through they are religions, Jainism has atheistic foundation and Buddhism has agnostic foundation. If not, the Westerners will at least accept it if they are informed.
What is hard to sell is the agnostic and atheistic discussions and even philosophical foundations that are in Hinduism's immense scriptures. While the Westerners will understand and accept if they are informed about them, the 'hard sell' point actually applies to the Hindus. Almost all Hindus (except those few who are discerning learners of Hinduisms philosophies) have stock ideas about Hinduism and they also have a complete conviction that Hinduism is 100% theistic. That is not the truth.
Actually, proper knowledge-oriented-understanding of the Hindu scriptures is a rarity among Hindus. Thus, rational swamis get better acceptance in the West; swamis who are willing to teach with due allowance towards Hindu belief-clinging (along with tolerance for the prevalence of superstitions too) do a better job in India. No swami would even discuss the detail of how Hinduism too has agnostic and atheistic components in its philosophical foundation. The swamis might get looked upon as unholy persons, possibly!
How can there can be any doubt that the strangest religion in the world is Hinduism - more or less nobody actually knows what it is!