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Comment by jbverschoor | Hacker News Reader

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jbverschoor

Why do people always think that things from the past are simply not real.

“They”(us in the future) could say the exact same thing about all the things that are real in our current lives.

All these mythical creatures (soon to be extinct)

Having such a surplus of fresh water.

At a certain point they will just deny Dubai was created

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The way of vulgar skepticism is to assume something doesn't exist until it has been proven to exist.

In cases like the Lock Ness monster or invisible pink dragons in my garage, that approach happens to yield good results (and so would blanket generic cynicism.) But it falls apart quick when you stray very far from the fantastical, e.g. "masks have not yet been proven to work, therefore masks don't work."

A bayesian approach to skepticism is much better than vulgar skepticism. Bayes asks the skeptic to consider the general outlandishness of a possibility P(A), the basic likelihood of apparent evidence occurring regardless of the hypothesis P(B), and the likelihood of there being evidence at all even if the hypothesis were correct P(B|A).

There are plenty of things from the past that are absolutely real. We have tons of physical evidence for settlements all over the world throughout history. I’m sure there’s more yet to be discovered. But until we discover it, it’s just hearsay.

There may well have been a real place that inspired Plato’s mention if Atlantis, but only one. Not the many hundreds of possible locations suggested over the centuries. They can’t all be Atlantis, if any of them are.

200yrs from now well meaning discussion will consider if the long extinct elephant was in fact mythical

Do you expect all the physical evidence of Elephants, such as bones, tusks, genetic samples, stuffed animals, photos and peer reviewed zoological descriptions, to disappear in the next 200 years? If so why? The Dodo went extinct 340 years ago and nobody thinks they were mythical. The mammoth even before that. Even dinosaurs are known to have existed, as a fact. We have vast amounts of physical evidence. So I really don’t understand what point you’re trying to make.

Perhaps he means non academic discussions like whether vaccines actually work that you find on forums. There's loads of people doubting established facts.

Moon landing denialism is a prevalent minority belief. I think it's within the realm of possibility that the Apollo landings may one day be regarded as myth by the majority, if society (once again) takes an anti-intellectual turn. The cynical dismissal of "Hollywood faked it because of the Cold War" is a very neat and tidy meme that spreads well as it is.

It depends, third part evidence of the landings, such as images from other country's lunar orbiters, is only going to get stronger.

It is human nature to glorify the past and romanticize the greatness of "those days". There is nothing wrong in maintaining a healthy skeptical mind towards outrageous claims. Further the onus of proof lies on the person making the claim.

> At a certain point they will just deny Dubai was created

That reminds me of a (reportedly fake) quote attributed to Sheikh Rashid bin Saeed Al Maktoum:

“My grandfather rode a camel, my father rode a camel, I ride a Mercedes, my son rides a Land Rover, and my grandson is going to ride a Land Rover, but my great-grandson is going to have to ride a camel again.”