Bzzzt. We’d find a way to breed without hormones pushing us around. Look at science, engineering, flower gardening. Plenty of ambition there without chemical influence.

I just heard the term “administrative burden”. But that’s pretty vague.

That’ would require us to exercise a degree of humility. Tricky.

The scientific method consists of observation and talking about what you observed. The rest is accounting.

And tho I appreciate balanced books as much as anybody, let’s not let that distract us from our first step in any scientific investigation : Observation.

Which leads us to these methods that I roughed out for you there.

But if these methods are not your cup of tea then you can only blame yourself.

And if you prefer to ignore those who have gone where you have not, then, again, you can only blame yourself.

I described like 5 things. Can you be more specific?

And repeating your thesis sways me not at all.

Have you tried whacking yourself in the head with a rock?

Ok.

Environments suggesting an afterlife may be encountered via certain meditation techniques.

Interviews with children who recall past lives suggests reincarnation.

Something fitting description of a “creator of the universe” may be encountered via certain meditation techniques.

Little people. Hmm. You got me there. But the literature is filled with reports. I hear that frequent fasting is good.

Spirits. I’d advise hallucinogens.

And of course, these methods are unavoidably esoteric and depthy.

A rhetorical question avoids getting to the point because getting to the point is not the point of rhetoric. The point of rhetoric is emotional effect. Therefore when swift and easy arrival at the point is eschewed (a moment’s google), and an emotional effect is clearly evident, then rhetoric is clearly the point.

Tangentially, consider the phenomenon of “smugnorance”.

But ignorance is only really appreciated in retrospect.

When the ignoramus is contemporary, he knows he’s right. He’s thinking what all the smart modern people are thinking. Of course he’s right.

And any idea that contradicts him (and contradict the modern, right-thinking majority) is clearly foolishness.

So maybe it’s the modern right-thinkers that we need to be wary of.

Gee, sorry.

So many of us think of ourselves as smart and sensible while actually being as locked into the paradigm of the hour as a 13th century religious zealot. Same insanity, different century.

Did you not research the phenomenon a bit? Google it?

One hypothesis is that they didn’t touch the stuff that the doctors touched.

I mean I’m getting that your question is rhetorical. Which is to say it doesn’t get to the point quickly. And I think you’d be better off getting to the point quickly. So you can move on to more meaningful investigations.

Have you tried conducting the relevant experiments? That’s how we test such things.

All modern smart people know what the truth is. Always have. Always will.

It’s funny. People I know who are religious. They may have a head full of scripture but dogmatism isn’t as ubiquitous as you might think. And often behind that scriptural thinking is a proper humility. An understanding that these eyes and this brain are just a speck. A dot of illumination in a vast night. Fine modern scientific and/or theological theories notwithstanding.

The popular arrogance, otoh, is childish. Smug certainty that you have truth in hand. I find that hard to swallow.

Drugs and meditation are the best cure for it as far as I can tell.

I like meditation a lot.

Are you really wondering?

State your case and move on. You are probably filled with foolish ideas too. We all are. All you can do is grow.

I can’t believe that you take dreams seriously. Everybody knows they’re just hallucinations.

Afterlife? Reincarnation? It’s just fantasies.

A creator of the universe? Crazy.

Little people. Spirits. Sure people reported seeing them for thousands of years. But now we know better.

Don’t be crazy.

I know I’m beating this point into the dirt. But seriously.

I think it might speak against the idea. Because there is a strong probability that it is chosen, not because evidence/logic/etc leads to it, but because it is popular with one’s friends. Not saying it’s necessarily so, but there’s a strong probability.

(Which would lead to “truth can only be gotten from antisocial weirdos”. Which is kinda bleak I guess.)

But yes. I think that the 99% of people get their whole reality from consensus. No actual independent thinking except in the details. And there is also a vast hostility to the strange there. Maybe that’s “tribalism”.

That is a very good point. I will look into that.

A family of 5th generation inbreds exchanging chuckles over the odor of their piss. The conversation is narrow. The jokes are private. Real novelty is strictly forbidden.

Fresh is a funny way to put it.