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>>>>> [ym -(2apr99)] I ought to have predicted
>>>>> that any reference to Sokal would set the
>>>>> old wheel in the hamster cage whirling...
>>>>> Please delete the reference to "local Sokal"
>>>>> from my recent post and substitute: "April
>>>>> Fools Day LeVay"

>>>> [i] Did you actually have hamsters?  I did.

>>> [ym] My Hamster died, unfortunately :(

>> [i] What did any of this have to do with
>>  SigF and StarTrek?

> [ym]  My essay was actually about
> Jung --but I cleverly wove the StarTrek
> episode into the argument...

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[i]  Perhaps some are naturally repelled
by unselfconscious idiocy, such as the
below WAS rife with.

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> -----Original Message-----
> From: Stephen Miles Sacks, Ph.D.
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Sent: 26/aug/00
> Subject: Evolution and Cognitive Dissonance
>
> Some of you may have observed that after
> teaching evolution and testing students'
> knowledge of it, some of the A and B students
> comment that although they [vaguely] understand
> [what you'd have to be a very sharp historian to
> make any sense out of], they nevertheless do not
> believe it.
>
> One explanation is, since the students
> demonstrated they learned the concepts,
> cognitive dissonance occurred. The students
> reject 'evolution' as a way of reducing the
> dissonance as opposed to embracing [cell biology,
> chemistry, immunology, embryology, anatomy,
> psychiatry, geology, & civilization] to reduce
> the dissonance.
>
> Another explanation is, students reject
> attempts to get them to personally accommodate
> [BULLSHIT] no matter how well they [vaguely]
> understand the concepts.
>
> Another explanation is the students are
> bright and they have attempted to
> intellectually falsify the thesis, and they
> wind up rejecting it because, [like their
> teachers, they are fascile rather than
> fully selfconscious].
>
> Just how far do you think teaching should
> go to encourage personal accommodation and
> adaptation to [higher learning].
>


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