As I mentioned before, I’m currently a high school senior. As such, I’ve had many a teacher I’ve learned under. For the most part, I mostly stuck to the basics when it came to relationships with my teachers. However, there were a few intellectuals that I bonded close friendships with, albeit very odd ones.
Before moving to Nebraska, a Cambridge History teacher in Florida was perhaps one of my favorite people to talk to in school. He was an atheist but I didn’t mind in the slightest. What had me more curious was his interest in conspiracy theories. He had a couple of his own, more pointed towards (as you may have guessed) history. He claims that one theory he held that civilizations started much sooner and much more advanced than we expected came true with a discovery in South America. He also claims that many technologies, such as 3D printing, seemed to coincide with extraterrestrial documents, such as a “recovered craft” that had “no seems” (such in the way filament creates no seems when printed). Discussions with him were always interesting and full of wisdom and gracious dialogue.
After moving to Nebraska, I found that my advanced mathematics teacher was similar to talk to in this way, at least at first. Like my last teacher, he was an atheist, but that again didn’t concern me. We evidently talked about faith a few times, and how (although he didn’t seem found of the idea of a God, to which he mocked as a “grumpy old man in the sky yelling to create the world”), found that it was good to vest that universal sense of morality (I.e. the Golden Rule) in someone, like Christ and how one should keep faith and science separate in their lives. As time went on, it seems, he began to say a lot of theories that would rub some the wrong way. He makes frequent mention of the simulation theory, and how advanced mathematicians give us a coin flip probably that we either live in a simulation or not. Another time, he said it was more likely that aliens seeded life in our planet than it naturally evolving here. Whenever we debated topics, it seemed like he always had to be right. Of course, they never got heated but often would lead to me being disappointed in my own intelligence because of how “foolish” my presumed points seemed to be. Unfortunately, after a while I began to talk less with him due to the amount of times I felt would feel worse coming out than going into the conversation. Often, I would feel anxious about my own faith because I was afraid that if I ever brought it up, he would find some way to disprove it (I had previously presented some weak evidence when I was younger that I felt had supported the trustworthiness of the Bible, such as how ocean currents were discovered used the text, to which he responded that the Library of Alexandra probably provided that information to be put in, which left me a bit upset afterwards).
What do you guys recommend when it comes to situations like this? How would you recommend I reconcile this friendship with my teacher?
While I’m at it, is anyone knowledgeable about the claims my teachers made in these posts? Where does my math teacher keep getting these probabilities for the simulation theory?
Probably Reddit or something. My kids and I used to watch Ancient Aliens to practice identifying manipulative rhetoric and logical fallacies. That kind of stuff is fun if you watch it for entertainment. I’ve known a lot of really smart people who have some odd, conspiracy-theory beliefs. My personal theory is that it stems from their sense of otherness growing up with the neuroatypicalities that accompany giftedness. They can get overly obsessed with knowing or understanding what average people don’t get and sometimes they often assume they are smarter than actual experts. They may be smarter than experts, but that doesn’t mean they know more or know better than someone who is very invested in a specific field. Almost all the time, the people promoting pseudo-history or pseudo-science are very intelligent people, but they are dabblers in a field. They sit like gurus on the peak of Dunning-Kruger mountain.
I wrote this article to help people evaluate media claims for pseudo-science, and I think the list of things to watch out for in reliable and unreliable sources is something we all need frequent reminders about.
As for your relationship with your teacher, I was just talking on another thread here about the difference between trolling and debating/pushing an oppositional perspective. Someone who communicates their own beliefs with the intention of destabilizing or disregulating other people (trying to “own” someone or “torch” someone like the clickbait brags) is being immature and selfish. Caring humans engage with other humans with empathy and curiosity, they aren’t looking to use their social interactions primarily to fuel their egos or mediate the discomfort of their own insecurities. If you don’t walk away from a conversation feeling heard or validated as a person whose thoughts, feelings, and experiences matter, you don’t really have a good friend, you are being used.
Wikipedia has a pretty good article on the simulation hypothesis, which goes into the arguments for and against: Simulation hypothesis - Wikipedia . My take is that you can pick pretty much any probability for it being true, depending on what you take to be the probability of various things about which we can know nothing.
Alrighty. The one thing that always gets me worried is how to reconcile the possibility of this being true with a Christian worldview. What is your take?
We exist in the Logos, the information. The Word of God. “in him we live and move and have our being.” (Acts 17:28)
The universe is information science says, because of course it is. The bible agrees! Gospel of John chapter 1!
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. John 1:1-3
But simulation theory has some proofs against it. It is a modern reincarnation of paganism, just swap “AI” for “Zeus”. At best it is another turtle. We need the living Word to sustain our existence.
In practice, these people like your friends care very much about being “smart” but (as you can tell from their vulnerability to conspiracy theories), they are not. Sometimes you have to just not throw your pearls before swine.
I tend not to worry too much about the infinite number of things that could be true but that we have no way of assessing. We don’t have certain knowledge of anything – which is why we live by faith.
I’ll go with bit of dialog from the (very entertaining) movie “Free Guy”:
Guy: But if you’re not real, doesn’t that mean that nothing you do matters?
Buddy: What does that mean? Look, brother, I am sitting here with my best friend, trying to help him get through a tough time.
Right? And even if I’m not real, this moment is.
Right here, right now. This moment is real.
I mean, what’s more real than a person tryin’ to help someone they love?