Nassim Taleb - on atheism and inconsistency

Feb 4 2008
Nassim Nicholas Taleb is author of 'The Black Swan: The impact of the highly improbable' (2007) as well as 'Fooled by Randomness' (2001). He is a Professor in the Sciences of Uncertainty at the University of Massachusetts and has held positions at Oxford University, London Business School, New York University and Ecole Normale Superieure in Paris.

"I don't believe in beliefs, I don't believe that we humans use beliefs to act. I think beliefs have some other purpose. But the problem that I find very inconsistent and I don't know if some of Dawkin's friends or these guys are here. I find it extremely inconsistent to be suspicious of the bishops and be a sucker when it comes to the stock market. These people have double standards. Dawkins says anybody who rides a plane when they doubt the laws of physics is a hypocrite. To me anybody who is invested in the stock market who is critical of religion is a hypocrite!

There's nothing wrong with being critical of religion but you've got to go all the way. What happens is our scepticism is domain-dependent. "

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[MrNChoudhury]

@cbone6754

I think Nassim is saying the basis upon which you make your guess on the stock market is not that much different to religion. The underlying evidence and theory are absent or insufficient for you to hold a position and claim that it is 100% true in light of the facts as they are observable or understandable by us. He's basically saying we simply don't know so why try to convince yourself otherwise? If you follow it through it is the logical position to take in the face of unknowns.

[cbone6754]

Investing in the stock market market is a way of making an educated guess and trying to make money from it, it is an educated gamble. religion is the act of taking everything that we have learned about the universe and turning it on its head without proffering any kind of evidence in its stead. im sorry nassim but i do not see the correlation...