Joe Keohane is a Boston-bred, New York City-based writer and editor whose work has appeared in Conde Nast Portfolio, Boston magazine, Slate.com, The New York Times Book Review, The Boston Globe, The Utne Reader, The Washington Post, and others of varying notability and repute. Prior to entering the mercenary writing game full-time in 2009, he was a columnist and writer-at-large for Boston magazine, and editor-in-chief of the award-winning alternative weekly, Boston’s Weekly Dig.
Email him at joekeohane {at} ymail dot com. Or try to get him to accept your friend request here.
Dear Joe.
I read your article on facts and beliefs in the Globe with great interest.
I saw immediately its application to religious belief. I was not exposed to any religious training when I was a child, therefore I was able, as a blank sheet, to work out for myself an explanation as to why I was here and what I believed in when I was in my mid to late teens.
I concluded that all religious beliefs are nonsense and the growing evidence of our connection to all living things has solidified my view. I’ve had good natured debates with friends who are religious and experienced the point at which people make a sudden jump to faith in argument.
The disappointing thing for me is that I am a human too, and therefore am potentially prey to the very same limitations your article sets out.
It leaves me with little if any regard for our opinion of ourselves as thinking, objective organisms and I’m glad not to have to look forward to everlasting life, hemmed in by all our weaknesses.
Your article didn’t surprise me but it’s nice to see a scientific basis for its conclusions.
With kind regards,
John (Starr).
Joe;
My brother believes POTUS is Muslim and not born in U.S.
I am giving him your article and will ask him to please read!
However… I have repeatedly asked him to research the source and motives of the persons delivering Info. to him.
While looking up information about you, I do not see where your political loyalties are?
Please inform before I give the article to my brother.
I have heard:
“Don’t confuse me with facts, once my mind is made up!”
“How Facts Backfire” – a great article. I’ve read it a dozen times, sent it to all my friends and rels, BUT, they all fall into the same hole you describe in your article. This led me to info on Socratic Disputation and some of Socrates’ attempts to overcome some of these problems. Keep up the great work…………………………..Redding, CA