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Serving Northern St. Louis County, Minnesota

Operating on belief rather than reality has consequences

Posted 10/25/24

The late paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould once defined science and religion as “two non-overlapping magisteria,” where religion provides certainty but no testability, and science provides …

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Operating on belief rather than reality has consequences

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The late paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould once defined science and religion as “two non-overlapping magisteria,” where religion provides certainty but no testability, and science provides testability but no certainty. As the philosopher Soren Kierkegaard said, “If I am capable of grasping God objectively, I do not believe, but precisely because I cannot do this I must believe.” Science is based on two principles: the testable hypothesis and falsifiability. If a proposition is non-falsifiable, it lies outside the realm of science.
Non-falsifiability enters the secular world as a form of civil religion. Trumpism is a movement based on a secular belief system. Donald Trump can be as wild and extreme as he wants to be, knowing that his followers will accept his statements on faith, without question.
It is not possible to have dialogue with a belief system. No amount of data presented to a “true believer” has any impact. The belief system acts as a force field blocking any external information. It is what former Bush speech writer David Frum calls “epistemic closure,” the unwillingness to accept new information.
Belief systems have real consequences in real life. Republican voters suffered a 42-percent higher COVID death rate than Democrats. Those victims were martyrs for a political leader. Homeowners within feet of sea level refuse to accept the reality of climate change, but when hit by a hurricane defer to conspiracy theories to explain why the federal government has not bailed them out for their own poor judgment.
People vote for a belief system without considering the consequences of their actions. The Northland once had three giants in Congress: Colin Peterson, Jim Oberstar, and David Obey, from northwestern Wisconsin. These Democrats have been replaced by three Republican back benchers who swing no power in Congress. Minnesota lost a huge amount of influence by sending true believers instead of competent legislators to represent us.
At the state level, the switch of Northland voters from being reliably DFL to moving toward the Republicans has resulted in this region’s loss of power in the state Legislature, where the GOP caucus still remembers all those years of northern voters blocking them from power. Note that the most effective legislator from this region is rookie DFL Sen. Grant Hauschild, the “Caitlin Clark” of the 2023-24 legislative session. Hauschild always acted within the realm of the possible and the real and not some belief system.
Fred Schumacher
Gheen