Would people rather be ignorant...

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I had someone tell me today that fruits and vegetables, for example seedless fruit, have been evilly changed and eating them is of the Devil. I started talking about there is controversy over GMOs, but for example many seedless fruit, like bananas and limes for example, are triploid (three copies of each chromosome) and that affects their ability to make seeds, selected for by people. Anyway he asked how I was raised.... I had him explain because I didn't know what that had to do with anything... He said my uncle told him that I correct people all the time and it was rude, saying that I was rudely chalanging his beliefs... I guess he has technically the right to believe seedless fruit is of the Devil, but I didn't know it was wrong to educate people... I told him it's an autism trait, but well...

Ha ha, yeah, some people...

Hang on, in your avatar/pic is that your foot over your head?

Oh... I just saw your other thread, now I get it!

I think it is more a matter of capacity than ignorance. Religion frequently causes a severe reduction in capacity. People mistake metaphors for similies, and then take one misunderstood book as their only true authority. I know a flat-earth guy who is completely stuck on the Biblical description of the sun and moon as "two lights" rather than one light and one reflector.

^ I’ve never heard that explained in such a succinct way. At least in relation to the effects of some religions on some people.

Limited capacity.

I like it.

Yep, he's ultra religious... I'm not to that extreme at all... My whole family is like that, I'm the only scientific one with a science degree out of the whole lot... Well, I have a couple of cousins that make sense most of the time, but I don't get to talk to them much...

The person who said all that isn't making much sense - his waffling on about his opinions. You can't change his views so rather just ignore him if he brings up the topic again. He'd rather stay uneducated I guess - and surprisingly many people are like that. They don't want to hear other views.

If seedless grapes, oranges, watermelon and even bananas are GMO I should have turned into a mutant a long time ago. Maybe I am and I don't know it. Of course, I could never be a cool mutant, like one of the X-Men or something.

Some religious people have real mental problems. Omg I ate a banana, how long have I got before I start growing demon horns? Guess I better start growing my bangs longer to hide them.

One of my complaints about society is that a lot of people get humpty when their assertions are challenged. I guess it's something to do with me liking the scientific way of communicating while they prefer something else. A good scientist welcomes genuine challenge to their assertions. In that way they get closer to the truth. A good scientist also tends to keep his mouth shut until he knows what he's talking about.

I think religionists are often among the worst offenders (though perhaps no worse than certain other people with strongly-held opinions about politics or morality), presumably because they think they're committing a sin if they don't have faith in certain assertions, which can make them hostile to challenge. But as far as I can see, faith is pretending you know something that you don't know. It's one thing when they keep their irrational convictions to themselves, or to simply tell me that they believe a particular thing to be true, but they annoy me when they declare their beliefs to me as if they were facts without owning that it's only their opinion and acknowledging that from my perspective they could be wrong. Personally I try not to lay any such thing onto anybody, and I view it as bad manners to do so.

I don't usually like it when people label this or that as "evil" or "righteous." To me, they're just pretending that something they personally dislike or like has an absolute bad or good quality. So your acquaintance, in my view, would have been more objective to just say that he doesn't like seedless fruit, and to explain what it is about it that he has a problem with. Just saying that it's "of the devil" or "evil" is meaningless to me. Forget this devil chappie. There's not one iota of hard evidence for his existence. To make sense to me, this hater of seedless fruit would have to explain what his problem with the stuff is.

Presumably (assuming he's not just unthinkingly copying and pasting the assertion of somebody else whose opinion he defers to) he's concerned about the unnatural way seedless fruit is produced, and has some liking for the ideology that exalts the consumption of food that hasn't been mucked around with by technology, because such traditional food has been better time-tested and so might reasonably be expected to be healthier in some ways. At least, that's my best guess at what he'd have said if he wasn't so full of muddled thinking.

I feel sorry for people who don't do critical thinking and are closed to criticisms of their ideas. I don't see how they can adapt if they can't handle new insights and information that challenges what they've always thought to be true. There are circumstances under which such people wouldn't survive and I would.

He said a pastor told him this... He tends to do this, for example some family members saw a post on FB that the real purpose of covid-19 tests going up the nose is because they are secretly implanting a microchip near your brain... Since they believe microchips are the Mark of the Beast, they became leery of covid tests. They are anti-vaxxers too, and also believe that flu shots, the upcoming Covid shot and during surgeries, they implant the Mark, so they won't get them...

The issue I have with these beliefs is these people get angry if you say you don't agree with them... It's like that guy saying I can't argue my beliefs with him, but him being an Evangelical he's pushing his beliefs on others all the time... I don't understand it...

Evangelical groups encourage proselytizing, not because it brings in new members, but because the experience of being rejected builds group solidarity. Sometimes the sense of things is a bit obscure.

Anyway, I was brought up Evangelical and my beliefs were horribly challenged when I went to college. I majored in Zoology, because I love birds and other animals, and when I learned about evolution and all the evidence for it... It really opened my eyes... But I am never around like-minded individuals...

I know I'm going on a tangent, but I was pushed by my family for example to go on disability and I hate it with a passion because I don't have the money to have decent stuff, and also I am not doing what I truly love doing... But my family in general seem to mostly try to find a disability, then claim disability so they don't have to work... And my family seems horribly opposed to me working again, even going as far as to say I need to fire my social workers because they suggest I get a job, etc... My uncle especially is like this and I'm having issues with him trying to run my life by even saying that I can't have surgery on my knee, etc... This is why I am applying for jobs, but I'm getting frustrated at not having the financial backing to actually move if I get one... So it's a frustrating cycle.

^^ I have had to live unconventianally a few times after deciding to leave a bad situation. It can be a scramble, but the world is built on new beginnings. You might want to start a collection of housekeeping gear and other things you'll need.

Yes it doesn't seem like a healthy situation. I'd be making plans to get out, I don't think I could live like that. Of course I'd want somewhere better to go to first.

Angnix, I would recommend you stop talking to your uncle and family about your plans, hopes and dreams, it is clear they want to sabotage you and keep you dependent.

I would ask your social worker for resources to help you. Or just google Michigan developmental disabilities. If you have a formal diagnosis of autism from before your 18th birthday, get a copy of that and hang on to it.

Many of us older people got out and on our own without the supports available now. So if you don’t have or don’t want government supports, you can still get out. It takes determination or, in my case, desperation. Or both.

I hope you find a way to get out and follow your dreams.