People in the skeptic community tend to diminish the fact that fellow humans tend to have involuntary emotional reactions in response to arguments, no matter how good the arguments are. If someone is heavily invested in believing in something like homeopathic medicine, they will experience a strong visceral feeling when you try to discuss homeopathy in a scientific setting. Even if they don't want to, the feeling may be there.
I'm not sure what the immediate practical or ethical implications of this are. I don't believe it's right to entertain any irrational or harmful belief just because it brings someone else comfort, but I tend to be less confrontational than Sam Harris.
Reminds me of what a therapist friend says about counseling, how you have to give a client a safe environment before you do any work.
Also seems related to the point linked from HN recently - ask someone a moral question, let them answer, and then somehow convince them they gave an opposite answer (they did this by secretly altering the paper questionnaire they filled out, and showing the forged answer to the subject) - the person will then often defend the answer they apparently gave, rather than the answer they really gave.
I think it's a good question. My best theory so far is to just lay out the reasoning to the person in a very accessible way, so they can accept it on their own timetable.
People in the skeptic community tend to diminish the fact that fellow humans tend to have involuntary emotional reactions in response to arguments, no matter how good the arguments are. If someone is heavily invested in believing in something like homeopathic medicine, they will experience a strong visceral feeling when you try to discuss homeopathy in a scientific setting. Even if they don't want to, the feeling may be there.
I'm not sure what the immediate practical or ethical implications of this are. I don't believe it's right to entertain any irrational or harmful belief just because it brings someone else comfort, but I tend to be less confrontational than Sam Harris.