on understanding nonsense

I could not trust one who could understand nonsense
-Nessus, the puppeteer, in Larry Niven's Ringworld

Nessus says this when Luis says that he does not believe in telepathy or some such superstition. Puppeteer's are ultimate cowards surviving due solely to their survival instincts. How right he is about trust and its dependence on one's ability to believe nonsense (or put otherwise, ones gullibility).

There are so many of us who learn one thing in books, use it to earn daily bread and then get out of the workplace and trust all kinds of rubbish without, for a moment, using the principles learnt and trying to test the truth in the rubbish (thanks for this angle Anu).

Unfortunately, it is the deceivers who are learning the scientific lingo and using it in a very subtle manner to in fact make the gullible believe that what they are being told is science (sometimes ancient, and sometimes even timeless).

It is important especially for the young amongst us to see where they take this world.

Keep your mind open, but also your eyes, and think things for yourselves