Thursday, April 07, 2011

When Experts... Aren't

I’m giving my opinion
And there’s got to be a way
To have people pay attention
To the things I want to say

I tried to be a scientist
But classes were too tough
But I took a course in marketing
That surely is enough

A course in methodology
Or others of that kind
Might have taught me the importance
Of proceeding double-blind

Or statistical analysis
And other science stuff
But I took a course in marketing—
That surely is enough.

I’ll talk about the benefits
Religious faith can bring—
It’s really not important
That I know a single thing

What the hell, it’s only blogging;
I can yammer off the cuff—
Hey, I took a course in marketing--
That’s got to be enough.

I’ll look at how I think, and then
Extrapolate from there—
An atheist must think like me;
If not, well… I don’t care.

So I posted my opinions
And the readers called my bluff!
But I took a course in marketing—
Why can’t that be enough?



The past day or so, I've been having my head explode. I blame Furious Purpose, whose post "What is it with Psychology Today?" introduced me to a couple of extraordinarily bad posts that ignorant (and, I suspect, stupid) bloggers had made about atheism. On the Psychology Today website, where no self-respecting magazine would allow such tripe to be associated with their name. (warning--read only if you like the idea of an ignorant fool lecturing others who know more than he does) The commentary at the site is wonderful--the readers are (mostly) far more knowledgeable about atheism and science than the blogger. Other nice commentary at Pharyngula, expectedly.

3 comments:

Nicole Schrand said...

Ugh... BS articles like these are (one of the reasons) why so many people disparage psychology. It kills me, really. The field can be rigorous and useful!

Melissa said...

Agh. I actually read throught the Pysch article, and the response, then the response to that, then the comments. Agh, I say.

Although, most of the comments were nice to read in this case.

Svlad Cjelli said...

"[U]s so-called atheists" cracks me up.

Us creationists really do think that the world wasn't created by God! It was just a trick!

Us republicans are secretly communists! Don't tell anyone!

Hi, I'm a Klansman, and I'm here to tell you that we love black people!