"Then they insist that there are special people who can see - if only dimly - through this veil."

I have this pet theory (hey, maybe it's another intellectual black hole) that all religious, mystical, and irrational beliefs derive from this: we human brains have this property (either innate or easily acquired due to existing structure) that leads us to worship other individuals. By "worship" I mean trust without doubt and with unreasonable admiration. I think that the following phenomena are all manifestations of this same property: (1) religious thinking, (2) romantic love, (3) pop culture/culture of cool, (4) family ties. The third and the fourth one would be the most self-aware forms of this type of thinking, but the first two (the first one especially) can take on forms of the self-sustaining "black holes" mentioned in the post.

TL;DR: our idols are within us.

Did anyone else get a sense that this article provided no special insight? It mentioned repeated examples like "I just know" works for Ted but not flying saucers. What is the difference between Ted out the window and a saucer? I felt the author relies heavily on the audience sharing his sense of the obvious and absurd, but provides no argument to support his claims.

A good example of applying reality tests to controversial ideas is the Science-Based Medicine blog,

http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/

which corrects quite a few mistaken ideas found in the popular press (and, thus, here on HN) about medical research.

I feel this article is guilty of exactly what it argues against. Many of the views he writes off as ridiculous may be the results of countless thought processes working in any number of contexts. Instead of accepting this, he simplified each view that contradicts his own down to an obviously ridiculous claim, then makes use of what is effectively a traditional straw man argument. Sure, it's true that if your views are rationalized the way he expects them to be then you have no logical let to stand on. On the other hand should you have any sort of more complex and rational approach to the matter it appears that he will still gladly lump you with the lunatics.

That said, I do agree that the issue he is trying to point out is of vital importance. The fact is that most of the people that believe in mysticism, religions, UFOs, psychic powers, and other things to that effect are completely disconnected from the physical reality that they inhabit. However, I do not think the solution is to tell these people that their views are ridiculous, before quoting scientific facts the implications of which you might not even understand yourself. You would be better off establishing a rapport, and gradually introducing more and more facts that do not agree with their interpretation of the world. In the end you may both find some wisdom in the result.

This is somewhat tangential, but I get mildly irritated reading articles like this when they equate medicine with hard science. If the physics community operated like the pharmaceutical community, I think our knowledge of the universe would be less than it is today, to put it mildly. (As a reference, check HNSearch for "Prozac" and "placebo".)

Isn't most science the result/process of having ridiculous beliefs and scientifically validating your theories? Remember that, at one point, Heliocentrism was universally considered to be an utterly absurd idea.

"-But even scientists admit that they can't explain everything. -There probably are questions that science cannot answer..."

I would love to get rid of this intellectual appeasement of supernaturalists. It is only there to avoid accusations of scientism so I find it an argumentative cop-out.

Sure, science can't answer some questions. Like: "what hair colour is bald?", "where does god live?" and "what is the meaning of life?".

But is the problem with science or with the question? Always challenge the question, especially if it contains assumptions.

"Intellectual black holes" help a lot of people, in that it gives them a sense of purpose, security, etc. Religion is comforting to those grieving death.

However, the danger comes when intellectual black holes are propagated within society and thus accepted as truth, resulting in arbitrary notions of whats right and wrong.

Sometimes an article is worth writing just for the title you can put on top.