The Usual Shop

Posted by Steve on December 20th, 2007 in Uncategorized

In September of 1975 a bunch of scientists and Nobel Laureates put out an article officially decrying astrology as not true. I’m not sure what things were like back in 1975 regarding science and pseudo science, but I imagine if this happened today, we’d all laugh these scientists right back to their beakers. At least I would. I guess some people take astrology much more seriously than they should. But as far as I can tell, OF COURSE it isn’t true. That is to say, of course there isn’t any actual science or facts involved with it.

I love the ingenious episode of South Park when the boys go see John Edward who can supposedly talk to the dead. I apologize for spoiling the ending, but John Edward ends up winning the douche bag of the universe award in an intergalactic ceremony. All throughout the episode Stan is constantly pulling the practicality card and explaining using actual facts and real observations how Edward is able to seemingly speak with the dead.

One of my new favorite terms is ‘confirmation bias’. Which, according to uber-reliable Wikipedia (off the top of my head, I can’t recall it being wrong on the things I’ve looked up), is “a tendency to search for or interpret new information in a way that confirms one’s preconceptions and avoids information and interpretations which contradict prior beliefs.” As Simon and Garfunkel put it, “All lies and jest, still a man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest.”

It’s a neat thing to start paying attention to in daily life - how strongly people believe something because they want to and occasionally there are things that can be interpreted as endorsing those beliefs.

For some reason people want to believe that their dead ancestors still exist in a different realm and are happy and whatever. That may in fact be the case. But nobody knows for sure… At least that’s what I believe.

Having said all that, I still enjoy fortune cookies. I hate the actual cookie, but love reading my fortune. I was overjoyed today to find that my cookie actually contained three fortunes. That’s right, there were three little strips of paper with three different suggested lotto picks and three different Chinese words to learn all in one cookie. According to Dragon Diner, I really need to be more frugal this time of year. Also tomorrow I’m going to find that thing I’ve been searching for all these years, and sometime soon I’m going to find a kindred spirit and form a lasting friendship.

I’m planning on killing three birds with one stone by talking somebody into buying my drinks at the bar tomorrow night.

Today’s cookie was much more fortunate than the one I got a few years ago that had a blank fortune. That cookie contained a piece of paper with exactly nothing on it. At the time I thought of how many rhetorical possibilities that contained and realized a blank fortune cookie said much more than one with writing on it. It was much more accurate and much more honest. Of course, I also thought that I might die after I finished the meal.

But I lived, and I’m still alive today - although nobody could have imagined why.