Mount Kinabalu and Rationality

Sholto Byrnes wrote a brilliant article about the Mount Kinabalu  tourists who stripped off on reaching the summit of the mountain in a fit of exuberance and then filmed themselves doing it and transmitted the scene across the world in a fit of exhibitionism. They were warned not to do this by their local guide. They were arrogant to ignore him. He could have saved them from time in jail if they had had the brains to listen to him.

http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/malaysia-tourist-arrests-ive-witnessed-the-method-in-the-countrys-superstitious-madness-10316229.html

Many would claim that it is irrational to believe in god and animists beliefs or a mixture of the two. I am one of them. However, who I am to criticise those that do. Like Sholto Byrnes I too have travelled to Malaysia and Indonesia. My wife and I have friends there. One of our Indonesian friends leads Muslims  groups to Mecca for the Hajj pilgrimage, she also believes in ghosts. She holds on to her beliefs with good grace and humour even when I tease her that apparitions should show their appearance without clothes on, because clothes have no soul and they cannot survive a trip to the after world.  I wonder what happened to the souls of the Mountain's Western tourists?

Malaysian and Indonesian animists  do not have a monopoly on irrationalism as it is rife across the world. Westerners may live in a "post- Christian rational society" but despite the efforts of Newton, Darwin, Einstein and Heisenberg most of western thinking is dominated by irrationalism; most of our beliefs and decisions are not based on reason or evidence.

If we were all to think rationally racism, sexism, nuclear bombs, chemical weapons, the divine right to rule, fashion houses and cosmetics and hi-fi shops etc. would not exist. If we thought rationally we would take action on climate change.

Perhaps the worst form of irrationality is racism. It has been proven by science that there is only one race of Human Beings - homo sapiens sapiens - The Neanderthals and the Denisovans who were fellow members of our species, and who could be claimed to be separate races,  died out thousands of years ago. However, we still persist in defining humans by race in defiance of all the evidence. Westerners cannot claim to be the rational  "race" as it is condescending and arrogant to think that we are better than the animists.

The  Kinabalu tourists cannot be condemned for acting emotionally as emotions drive the human race to survive, multiply, love, create art, architecture and engineering works. Without emotion our species could not exist. Emotion dominates our character. However, if the emotional side of our character uses rational thinking to make weapons of war, pollute the planet and deny other people their right to have alternative opinions then we get ourselves into trouble.

Tourists would do well to recognise and follow the wisdom of the locals; you could avoid doing a stretch in jail or worse - being lynched. You could be saved from drowning by swimming in the wrong river or against the wrong tide. Whenever there is rational advice offered in goodwill please take it.

Why not read another brilliant article.

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/jun/12/kinabalu-naked-backpacker-las-vegas-rome-malaysia-tourists