tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4307187040250193857.post977183290084252610..comments2024-03-20T03:33:22.357-07:00Comments on Skeptophilia: Divine message recognition moduleGordon Bonnethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06003472005971594466noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4307187040250193857.post-69961436636346984252015-03-27T06:33:38.211-07:002015-03-27T06:33:38.211-07:00As a communication between author and audience, st...As a communication between author and audience, stories have conventional clues that people can actually rely on. People organize their perceptions and memories around stories, where a thing might have meaning which its real-world analogue lacks. People get their comeuppance, for instance. Of course when you evaluate real-world situations, there often isn't a neat and fair story that fits the facts, so there's a tendency to shoehorn one in, adjusting the facts as necessary to make the story fit. People who don't recognize this tendency in themselves, treat the world as if it was a huge story with an author who has a plan for how this will all wind up. They're more subject to misperceiving things as messages from that author, and desperately want the author to be PG Wodehouse (where the greatest tragedy is having to judge the village fete), not Stephen King.Tyler Torkhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11460706772136362593noreply@blogger.com