re: #4 ausador

I have been provoked and have asked the company how many of them could describe the Second Law of Thermodynamics.

Excellent quote. Related phenomena:

I have, many times, asked adult Christians (note: I am a Christian) “what do you mean by saved?” or other such seemingly foundational concepts, and been met by blank stares. “Well, Jesus saves.” “Right, but what do you mean by that?” “It means you don’t go to hell.” “OK, so how does that tie in to justification?” “Justiwhat?” It’s like they know all the buzzwords and catch phrases, but no concepts.

I also make it a habit, when discussing evolution (I studied evolutionary genetics as part of my masters degree) “can you explain to me what a mutation is?” or “what does selection mean?” At this point, people have usually been going on for pages about how such-and-such obscure journal paper proves or disproves evolution as a whole, and yet I’m met with blank stares when I ask about very basic concepts. They know the buzzwords, but only well enough to be able to know if a paper is “for” or “against” their side.

It amazes me how much people can care about certain topics, and how little they actually understand. I get that people might not understand things they don’t find important. But when something is important enough to get worked up over, you’d think people would take the time to form at least a basic understanding of it.