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Dik-Dik Van Dik
Skeptic Friend
United Kingdom
76 Posts |
 Posted - 04/04/2005 : 00:15:44
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NOTE: It isn't sexist to suggest differences between men and women, we already know there are many.
I seem to notice more women than men are 'spiritual' whatever that means, and a lot of women seem to believe in astrology, palm reading, ghosts etc. Also in my experience they are more inclined to trust natural remedies and medicines and not trust tried and tested modern medicines.
Discuss
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DARWIN 3:16
"The simple believeth every word." - Proverbs 14:15
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beskeptigal
SFN Die Hard
USA
3834 Posts |
Posted - 04/04/2005 : 02:42:33 [Permalink]
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| Perhaps it is just the trend in some particularly visible venues. I'd suggest men's gullibility is manifest in different ways. |
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
Posted - 04/04/2005 : 03:04:25 [Permalink]
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quote:
Originally posted by Dik-Dik Van Dik
NOTE: It isn't sexist to suggest differences between men and women, we already know there are many.
I seem to notice more women than men are 'spiritual' whatever that means, and a lot of women seem to believe in astrology, palm reading, ghosts etc. Also in my experience they are more inclined to trust natural remedies and medicines and not trust tried and tested modern medicines.
Discuss
I think that men are fully as gullible as women, but in different directions. We tend to take myths such as religion equally as seriously, perhaps more soeriously, as most preachers are male, and such nonsense as the Loch Ness monster more so. We are willing to waste time and treasure looking for the wreck of the ark, and we are easily deluded by the unsupported claims of politicians, to our detriment. I suspect that it is the primarily the male gender that keeps Fox News in business.
And a large percentage of us will happily believe various scams that claim machines which will defy the laws of physics, or any other impossible gadget. I've read that the Q Bracelets were big sellers among men, as were the magnetic shoes hustled by Florshime a few years ago.
But on the other hand, I'm not sure there is any reliable way to make the comparison. I think that age, education, social level and experience has a great deal to do with the gullibility of an individual either gender.
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist! 
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sweetmiracle
Skeptic Friend
USA
74 Posts |
Posted - 04/04/2005 : 09:29:44 [Permalink]
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quote:
Originally posted by filthy
quote:
Originally posted by Dik-Dik Van Dik
NOTE: It isn't sexist to suggest differences between men and women, we already know there are many.
I seem to notice more women than men are 'spiritual' whatever that means, and a lot of women seem to believe in astrology, palm reading, ghosts etc. Also in my experience they are more inclined to trust natural remedies and medicines and not trust tried and tested modern medicines.
Discuss
I think that men are fully as gullible as women, but in different directions. We tend to take myths such as religion equally as seriously, perhaps more soeriously, as most preachers are male, and such nonsense as the Loch Ness monster more so. We are willing to waste time and treasure looking for the wreck of the ark, and we are easily deluded by the unsupported claims of politicians, to our detriment. I suspect that it is the primarily the male gender that keeps Fox News in business.
And a large percentage of us will happily believe various scams that claim machines which will defy the laws of physics, or any other impossible gadget. I've read that the Q Bracelets were big sellers among men, as were the magnetic shoes hustled by Florshime a few years ago.
But on the other hand, I'm not sure there is any reliable way to make the comparison. I think that age, education, social level and experience has a great deal to do with the gullibility of an individual either gender.
Good points, filthy. And just add in how many men make religions out of sports and cars.... |
Remarkable claims require remarkable proof.
-Carl Sagan |
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Kil
Evil Skeptic
USA
13476 Posts |
Posted - 04/04/2005 : 10:03:43 [Permalink]
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All I can tell you is my girlfriend catches things that I miss. She is a critical thinker with a canny ability to see even the baloney of some critical thinkers. She certainly caught my own leaps of logic during my early debates with her on False Memory Syndrome. She doesn't miss a thing. She constantly challenges me, and more often then not she nails it. And while she considers herself a skeptic, she does not hold to the party line if she sees a flaw in logic, no matter where it comes from. She also seems to work from a very large pallet. That is to say that she is willing to take into consideration the idea that one color of the truth may not fit everyone, even logically. While I tend to see things as more black and white, right and wrong, she sees the shades between those positions and takes them into consideration too. Given that, every time someone announces that they have cornered the market on logic and reason, there is fair possibility of a flaw in there logic somewhere. Again, her recognizing the problems of the FMSF position is a good example of that.
What am I trying to say? I don't know if Michelle is typical and I suspect that she is not. Perhaps she was able to dodge a cultural bullet. I don't know. But generalizing about how woman think, besides being sexist, may be why the New Age panders to woman. Interestingly though, most of the movers and shakers in that movement are men. Most of the debates I have had with those “spiritual” people have been with men.
Edited for grammer... |
Uncertainty may make you uncomfortable. Certainty makes you ridiculous.
Why not question something for a change?
Genetic Literacy Project |
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Siberia
SFN Addict
Brazil
2322 Posts |
Posted - 04/04/2005 : 10:32:38 [Permalink]
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Mrm. I'm a girl.
But, see, from my experiences - that's a difficult question to answer. I've found most girl friends I had/have are given to new age and other woo woo stuff, simply because it's softer and appeals to their sense of wonder more than the rough, manly science. After all, New Age promises all a young girl wants: love, goodness and a happy fruitful life.
And they bite it. Wholeheartedly. Maybe it's because the New Age folks aim on matriarchy, as well. Maybe because New Age seems to be fit for girls. Maybe it's the girls I go out with (heck, even my best friend is a tarot reader... though she never read it for me). And I've yet to see a woman-oriented magazine that doesn't have a section of it destined to various types of horoscope and spiritualism.
I say New Age, but that works for most churches I've been to (admittedly, not many), they're packed full of women. Like Filthy says, maybe it's just a question of what type of beliefs we're speaking of. Some may appeal more to girls than to boys. |
"Why are you afraid of something you're not even sure exists?"
- The Kovenant, Via Negativa
"People who don't like their beliefs being laughed at shouldn't have such funny beliefs."
-- unknown
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Dik-Dik Van Dik
Skeptic Friend
United Kingdom
76 Posts |
Posted - 04/04/2005 : 10:48:14 [Permalink]
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| Wicca is another female orientated thing I thought of. Good points about the more typical things men get suckered into, like UFO hunting, conspircy theories, lost civiisations etc. I suppose to me, the girlie ones just seem even more whimsical |
DARWIN 3:16
"The simple believeth every word." - Proverbs 14:15
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Baza
New Member
United Kingdom
47 Posts |
Posted - 04/04/2005 : 12:45:39 [Permalink]
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| It seems to me to probably due to a more intense pattern reognition abilities. I seem to recall (I'll try to find the links) this may be something to do with the hunter/ gatherer lifestyle where the beefy men hunt for the game and the females gather other foodstuffs. Thus being able to recognise patterns and good colour perception would be advantaegous whereas the male only has to hit some animal with a sharp stick. If this is indeed the case then superstition which can be seen as recognising patterns in natural processes, may be more pronounced. Probably things like the recognising constalations from a random distribution of stars were probably put together by women. |
Baza |
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Dude
SFN Die Hard
USA
6891 Posts |
Posted - 04/04/2005 : 13:15:07 [Permalink]
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quote:
Wicca is another female orientated thing I thought of.
You have some statistics to back that up? Because I think you are wrong.
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Ignorance is preferable to error; and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing, than he who believes what is wrong.
-- Thomas Jefferson
"god :: the last refuge of a man with no answers and no argument." - G. Carlin
Hope, n.
The handmaiden of desperation; the opiate of despair; the illegible signpost on the road to perdition. ~~ da filth |
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Dik-Dik Van Dik
Skeptic Friend
United Kingdom
76 Posts |
Posted - 04/04/2005 : 13:35:03 [Permalink]
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No and I doubt any official statistics even exist. I'm basing my supposition on the fact that the wicca/witchcraft cult whatever you want to call it believe in a 'goddess' and this cult appeals to many teenage girls especially after being popularised by TV shows such as charmed or buffy.
http://paganwiccan.about.com/od/whatiswicca/f/womenonly.htm
also this wicca site also seems to think there is a female majority |
DARWIN 3:16
"The simple believeth every word." - Proverbs 14:15
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| Edited by - Dik-Dik Van Dik on 04/04/2005 13:37:31 |
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Valiant Dancer
Forum Goalie
USA
4826 Posts |
Posted - 04/04/2005 : 13:39:51 [Permalink]
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quote:
Originally posted by beskeptigal
Perhaps it is just the trend in some particularly visible venues. I'd suggest men's gullibility is manifest in different ways.
Well, y'all do date us and marry us men. Soooooooo.....  |
Cthulhu/Asmodeus when you're tired of voting for the lesser of two evils
Brother Cutlass of Reasoned Discussion |
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Valiant Dancer
Forum Goalie
USA
4826 Posts |
Posted - 04/04/2005 : 13:42:21 [Permalink]
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quote:
Originally posted by Dik-Dik Van Dik
Wicca is another female orientated thing I thought of. Good points about the more typical things men get suckered into, like UFO hunting, conspircy theories, lost civiisations etc. I suppose to me, the girlie ones just seem even more whimsical
Well, as both a Wiccan and male, it's more nature related of a religion and stresses male and female being equal parts of the whole. It attracts women by allowing them equal status which they do not enjoy in most other religions. |
Cthulhu/Asmodeus when you're tired of voting for the lesser of two evils
Brother Cutlass of Reasoned Discussion |
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trishran
Skeptic Friend
USA
196 Posts |
Posted - 04/04/2005 : 13:44:07 [Permalink]
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Please don't hold this against me, but I have attended some Wiccan events. I must say, they know how to throw a fun party, and there are plenty of guys there, too.
For the record, I don't believe in the goddess any more than I believe in any of the gods. I think the idea appealed to me because, having been brought up so catholic that I was in junior high before I knew what a protestant was, I was brainwashed into believing that one is not a full person without "spirituality." Goddess stuff was so opposite of catholicism, yet in some ways similarly structured, it was a natural, if timid, form of rebellion. |
trish |
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Valiant Dancer
Forum Goalie
USA
4826 Posts |
Posted - 04/04/2005 : 13:49:09 [Permalink]
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quote:
Originally posted by Dik-Dik Van Dik
No and I doubt any official statistics even exist. I'm basing my supposition on the fact that the wicca/witchcraft cult whatever you want to call it believe in a 'goddess' and this cult appeals to many teenage girls especially after being popularised by TV shows such as charmed or buffy.
http://paganwiccan.about.com/od/whatiswicca/f/womenonly.htm
also this wicca site also seems to think there is a female majority
Not quite accurate. Might I suggest www.cog.org as a better source of information?
As anectdotal evidence, the Chicago Wicca covens do usually complain about a lack of males. Informal Neo-Pagan censuses have been attempted over the years by COG. The results tend to indicate out of approx 300,000 practioners in 1992, about 76,000 are men.
http://www.adherents.com/Na/Na_455.html
However, characterising Wicca as a cult is improper. A cult implies the existance of charismatic leaders who demand absolute blind obediance. Wicca does not have these traits and from your bandying about of terms concerning Wicca, it is clear that you do not understand it even at a most basic level.
Wicca 101 (abbreviated version)
There is a central creative force in the universe. It is divided into a male (God) and female (Goddess) aspects. The male is raw energy, but without form or direction. The female is form without energy. The action of the two together does the work. You cannot have one without the other. |
Cthulhu/Asmodeus when you're tired of voting for the lesser of two evils
Brother Cutlass of Reasoned Discussion |
| Edited by - Valiant Dancer on 04/04/2005 13:58:41 |
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Dik-Dik Van Dik
Skeptic Friend
United Kingdom
76 Posts |
Posted - 04/04/2005 : 13:57:16 [Permalink]
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| well thank you for enlightening me. |
DARWIN 3:16
"The simple believeth every word." - Proverbs 14:15
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ktesibios
SFN Regular
USA
505 Posts |
Posted - 04/04/2005 : 14:42:50 [Permalink]
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quote:
Originally posted by Baza
It seems to me to probably due to a more intense pattern reognition abilities. I seem to recall (I'll try to find the links) this may be something to do with the hunter/ gatherer lifestyle where the beefy men hunt for the game and the females gather other foodstuffs. Thus being able to recognise patterns and good colour perception would be advantaegous whereas the male only has to hit some animal with a sharp stick. If this is indeed the case then superstition which can be seen as recognising patterns in natural processes, may be more pronounced. Probably things like the recognising constalations from a random distribution of stars were probably put together by women.
Umm, before you can hit the animal with a sharp stick you have to find it and get within sharp stick range. That implies developing tracking skills which require both an ability to recognize patterns and considerable empirical learning ability. I can't see learning to recognize edible plants among the "noise" of the environment and learning to tell what kind of animal passed by and how long ago from its droppings as being horrendously different in nature.
Now the development of agriculture could be a kettle of fish of a different color. What a leap of the imagination is involved in deciding to bury some perfectly edible seeds to test the relationship of seeding to growth, draw appropriate conclusions and then systematize what you've learned into a method of production!
If, as I've read somewhere or other, that work was done primarily by our female ancestors, I'd give it points over making pretty imaginary pictures in the sky.  |
"The Republican agenda is to turn the United States into a third-world shithole." -P.Z.Myers |
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