Beware Echo Chambers
A while ago I mentioned
that Atheists don’t gather weekly to pray to the universe or some
such other nonsense, but I do think even we Atheists need to be
cautious about our gatherings whether in person or on line in social
media. If we only ever hear opinions that are compatible with our
own, then we may have begun living within an echo chamber.
Life in the Echo Chamber
can sneak up on you and it can exist wherever folks gather and
reinforce each other’s beliefs often leading to the feeling that
there are no other ideas and certainly no great number of other
people who see things differently. That group think while
useful for getting things done, is dangerous to take to heart too
deeply. Even Atheists need to remind themselves of this and take
precautions.
I think this may be one of
the reasons why some Atheists are so out and so confrontational. At
the very least when you have to make the arguments against religion
or religiosity regularly, it means you’re at least listening to the
opinions of the other side. It’s also probably why I often feel
that the religious lack skill in making good arguments or quite
simply don’t think logic is a necessary component of their
arguments and I often hear other Atheists confirming this impression.
While on the one hand,
logical arguments are a good sign of intelligence and will make me
take someone and their point more seriously, on the other hand, Logic
and Faith seem to be mutually incompatible. In the end it seems like
we’re expecting a paraplegic to do acrobatics. Sure some folks
need to be reminded that their beliefs are incompatible with evidence
or logic, some might just be lazy thinkers who need to be reminded to
use their mental muscles on certain subjects, but others, well there
are definitely some folks who have internalized the echo chamber so
much that they can’t venture outside of it any longer.
Aside from addressing
arguments from the other side, I find that educating myself, reading
widely, and not isolating myself to just Atheist sites or videos
helps to keep me open and ready to doubt or question rather than just
accept everything I’m told. You may think this is an unnecessary
worry because Atheists are the minority and we’ll always be free
thinkers, open and logical?
Well, I’ve met some
Atheists who have their own prejudices and definitely need to open
themselves up more, to engage doubt more. Why? Well there are a lot
of subjects you could live in an echo chamber for, not just religion
and secularism. For instance, I appreciate that there are some words
that have subtle shades of meaning, that language is full of fun
inconsistencies, many of which I use for humorous effect, but there
are some who will hang a whole argument on just one word’s meaning.
Sometimes this literally loses them the logical win because the
recipient of their wisdom really doesn’t care about one word. Sure
their audience ought to educate themselves, but language is a living
growing thing. Language changes over time and while you might say
the pen is mightier than the sword, communication is still king.
Communication is more important.
That’s just one example.
Some atheists carry torches for Ayn Rand and call themselves
republicans (even if only as RINOs / teapartiers), others are just as
deep in the liberal camp of thinking. I freely admit I’ve more of
a liberal leaning, but I’m aware that not so long ago my political
inclinations were more libertarian. Still the downside of bias is we
are so often unaware of how much they influence our perceptions of
the world. It’s why they’re called mental blind spots.
Echo chambers are the
comforting balm that keeps you living unaware of your mental blind
spots. I urge everyone to get out of that warm gooey, comfortable
womb of like-minded sycophants, and do new things, talk with people
you just met, see new parts of the world or even just visit other
parts of the internet. It might be a little frightening, but it will
be a little illuminating too, especially when you stumble across
someone else’s echo chamber, and in the end you’ll gain a
stronger sense of who you are.
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