Grab The New Inquisition: Irrational Rationalism And The Citadel Of Science Chronicled By Robert Anton Wilson Accessible In Edition

is one of my favorite books of all time, I HIGHLY recommend this book to anyone who may want to reevaluate their assumptions about how the world i, e. the mind goes about creating itself, This book is a lifechanger, It will change your view of reality and open your eyes to a wider universe one of the most important books in modern times I started reading this one, but stuck somewhere along the way.
What was the cause I can't really remeber, I think it was another book, The New Inquisition: Irrational Rationalism and Citadel of Science, by Robert Anton Wilson, is according to Wikipedia, “a book about ontology, science, paranormal events, and epistemology.
” It is supposed to tear down the dogmatism of traditional the Citadel science, Maybe it does, but the entire book undermines its own objective through a whos who whats what of fallacious arguments, Wilson purports to challenge the scientific establishment, accusing it of dogmatically dismissing, and even suppressing outofthenorm theories, Unfortunately, Wilson attempts this with unsubstantiated anecdote after anecdote, as if the “they cant all be wrong” argument is sufficient,

Unlike Quantum Psychology, which had moments of rational reasoning, The New Inquisition is more of a rant against CSICOP Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormalnow Committee for Skeptical Inquiry and a select few of its fellows.
Right in the Introduction, Wilson draws the line in the sand: "This book speaks of a New Inquisition, a New Idol and a New Agnosticism.
By the New Inquisition I mean to designate certain habits of repression and intimidation that are becoming increasingly commonplace in the scientific community today, By New Idol I mean to designate the rigid beliefs that form the ideological superstructure of the New Inquisition, By the New Agnosticism I mean to designate an attitude of mind which has been elsewhere called “model agnosticism” and which applies the agnostic principle not just to the “God” concept, but to ideas of all sorts in all areas of thoughts and ideology.
"and"This book is deliberately polemical because I believe models, as tools, should be tested in that kind of combat which Nietzsche metaphorically called “war” and Marx called dialectical struggle.
"

Well. Youre right. Argument over. Lets all go out and have a beer, Okay. Im being unfair. Unfairly dismissive. The thing is, he has a pointto an extent, Blind faith dismissal of every new and out of the norm idea Im guilty of referring to them as “fringe” doesnt serve intellectual and scientific advancement well.
But Martin Gardner, Wilsons apparent arch nemesis, has more and better points darn that subjectivity of mine slipping in there, Acceptance of every new and out of the norm idea without rigorous evidence or critical analysis not only doesnt serve intellectual and scientific development, but it reverses progress made thats my assessmentI am pretty sure Gardner never said something close to those words, but thats the sentiment.
As Gardner notes in Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science, scientists cannot be expected to stop what they are working on and write detailed refutations of every theory and pseudotheory that comes along.
The nature of science is selfpolicing, First the scientist is expected “to mass considerable evidence before his theory can be seriously entertained, ” Then he pardon the sexist “he” those who know me know that I strive for generic applicability and political correctness, but he/she gets to be clumsy must endure the skeptical analysis of his peers.
And if the process reveals flaws or errors, the burden of proof is on that of the claimant, Not that of the detractors, Why is that so conveniently ignored by Wilson If the theories he supports stood the test, then he wouldnt have had anything to write about.


There are so many flaws in Wilson's arguments, flaws in his research, obvious cherrypicking of data obvious if one researches the references, baldfaced hypocritical criticism of anyone who would criticize him or his pet pseudosciences that I finally gave up when my full review passed several pages.
And for whatever

reason, Wilson hates Catholics, Marxists and CSICOP, . . taking every opportunity to drip vitriol on anyone related to CSICOP Gardner, Carl Sagan, I guess it is okay for him to be blindly dismissive, but not okay for skeptics who do honest analysis to dismiss his favorites,

Unlike Quantum Psychology, which had points of lucidity, The New Inquisition is an angry man's petulant diatribe chock full of nonsense, An ode to and argument for agnosticism in typical RAW style, It seems he plumbed a lot of the material that formed the mental environment for his previous works, Or maybe I've just read this before and forgot, Either way, his rapidfire examples of unexplained phenomenon are clearly premobiledeviceenabledInternet, but somehow that doesn't take away from his underlying point that there's still plenty of stuff out there we don't yet understand.
We need this book now more than ever RAW's "New Inquisition" deals with his epistemology, which, in his own words is "model agnosticism", meaning that every frame of reference is not the all encompassing and absolute truth, and what we know of the world is only what we can glean from our experiences of it, through sense data.
Beyond our perceptions there exists what we do not perceive, or "tunein", Model agnosticism admits that every model, even the modern scientific one, is only a model, I was surprised that Alfred Korzybski was only referenced a few times, as his dictum 'the map is not the territory' was quoted and referenced by RAW in a multiplicity of contexts for the discordian purposes of undermining the faith that people put in their own world views.
An absolutely necessary book for RAW fans and fellow Discordian Popes an infallible lot, we are,
Ps. My edition the New Falcon printing fromwith the candle amp skyline cover spells Korzybski's name wrong in the first chapter, an egregious error which RAW would have spotted.
It has been too long since I've read something by Robert Anton Wilson, Far too long. It felt great to get back into the crazy vortex of his head again, Like a dose of psychedelic mushrooms that strips away all the pretenses of your assumed Reality, While definitely not Wilson's sharpest work, this book was fun, Rather than assembling a truly rational argument, he is playing psychological tricks as much as he is presenting information for your consideration, My annoyance at being bombarded with seemingly endless and unverifiable stories of frogs, stones, and other bizarre crap falling out of the sky gave way to delight as I realized the point was to make me examine my own reactions to the stories rather than the content of the stories per se.
As in other books of his I have read, Wilson is questioning the ultimate "reality" of human perception, Sometimes I am a nihilist and think we have no hope of perceiving anything "real" because of our limited sense organs, which are very poor instruments.
Then books like this make me semihopeful that by shifting the frame of our perception, we could see things of which we cannot now conceive.
Wilson was optimistic that there would be massive shifts in paradigm by the end of his life, but I believe there are, as there always have been in human history, strong forces opposing creative thinking, except when it benefits the financially powerful.
I see this all the time as a doctor, as our research is very much enmeshed with big pharma, They provide the funds, the meds, and pretty much set the framework for how we ask questions, and we are dependent on them to have money to construct large enough studies to be statistically meaningful.
But, I digress. If you can get in the mindset to play along with Wilson in this book, there is fun to be had, and it's an enjoyable navelgazing session to consider what parts of experience we are neglecting at any given time due to our neurological processing limitations, as well as our culturally conditioned biases regarding the raw sense data we are presented with.
Falls of fish and frogs, UFO sightings, ESP, twoheaded pigs, . . but no this kind of talk is madness, of course, of course,

To some people this stuff just DOES NOT HAPPEN, As Robert Anton Wilson states so succinctly "Certitude is seized by some minds, not because there is any philosophical justification for it, but because such minds have an emotional need for certitude.
"

And some of these people, who are SO SURE OF THEIR FACTS, have actively destroyed men like Wilhelm Reich and Timothy Leary, because these men threatened their certitude.


But if quantum physics proves anything, it proves ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE, But when studies are done on, say, ESP or telekinesis with positive rates way above probability, the Fundamentalist Materialists think Richard Dawkins will always say "they cooked the data" or "they faked the results"

This surety this irrational rightness is the cause of most of the pain and suffering on this planet, and Robert Anton Wilson makes this very clear, while at the same time pulling chuckles out of you.


I highly suggest Robert Anton Wilson to anyone who truly wishes to change their life and their thinking,
A fascinating book that might make you question, . . well everything! Some of Wilsons ideas about the number “” are here, as is an explanation of the concept of “nonlocality, ”

Acquired Sept,
City Lights Book Shop, London, Ontario The New Inquisition dares to confront the disease of our time Fundamentalist Materialism.
Wilson explains, I am opposing the Fundamentalism, not the Materialism, This book is deliberately shocking because I do not want its ideas to seem any less stark or startling than they are, Robert Anton Wilson became, at various times, an American novelist, essayist, philosopher, polymath, psychonaut, futurist, libertarian and self described agnostic mystic, Recognized as an Episkopos, Pope, and Saint of Discordianism by Discordians who care to label him as such, Wilson helped publicize the group/religion/melee through his writings, interviews, and strolls.
He described his work as an attempt to break down conditioned associations, to look at the world in a new way, with many models recognized as models or maps, and no one model elevated to the truth.
My goal is to try to get people into a state of generalized agnosticism, not agnosticism about God alone but agnosticism about everything, Robert Anton Wilson became, at various times, an American novelist, essayist, philosopher, polymath, psychonaut, futurist, libertarian and self described agnostic mystic, Recognized as an Episkopos, Pope, and Saint of Discordianism by Discordians who care to label him as such, Wilson helped publicize the group/religion/melee through his writings, interviews, and strolls.
He described his work as an "attempt to break down conditioned associations, to look at the world in a new way, with many models recognized as models or maps, and no one model elevated to the truth.
" "My goal is to try to get people into a state of generalized agnosticism, not agnosticism about God alone but agnosticism about everything, " sitelink.