Irrational belief adherents often hold more factual knowledge than skeptics
Evidence
Do not expect that people who reject scientific thinking lack factual knowledge. Adherents of irrational belief systems often spend considerable time acquiring detailed knowledge that at first glance seems to confirm their ideas. Those who spend half their lives studying homeopathy can often easily cite a dozen studies that seem to prove the efficacy of homeopathic remedies. Those who have spent less time on the subject will not be able to spontaneously prove that not a single one of them has probative value according to the principles of medical science. — Holm Gero Hümmler, Ulrike Schiesser, Fact and Prejudice, 816
Categorization
- XREF: Connects to the Dunning-Kruger literature and the asymmetry of specialist knowledge in fringe domains.
Related
- Believers view science as fixed dogma while seeing beliefs as personal experience (similarity 0.82)
- Science-skeptics misread science as memorized, unquestionable genius dogma (similarity 0.79)
- Belief in natural remedies is defended by conspiracist insider knowledge claims (similarity 0.79)
- Scientists pursue truth by actively seeking invalidation of their beliefs (similarity 0.78)
- Theoretical doubts about objective truth need not override practical reliance on evidence (similarity 0.78)