Wisdom From Massimo

Massimo Pigliucci has posted answers to seven interview questions by Greg Correl at Open Salon. Following are some gems:

• --- I do not consider theology a viable intellectual enterprise anymore. Its premises are both unreasonable and unsubstantiated, so that the whole thing becomes a house of cards easily knocked down by even the most tenuous critical thinking wind, so to speak. A believer who begins the discussion from within a particular apologetic tradition is already bound to fail at the onset.
• The new media offer both great new opportunities for engaging people in critical thinking and fertile new ground for spreading ignorance, bigotry, or just mindless entertaining.
• --- critical thinking can be learned and practiced at a very young age. The thing to understand, though, is that critical thinking - like science itself - doesn't come natural to human beings, it is a skill that needs to be acquired. We naturally tend to jump to conclusions based on very little evidence, rationalize our theories to the utmost degree, and stick with the wrong idea long after it has been shown to be false.