The Scientific Method Has Given Way to Faith in the Groundless

Hobbits attack: how 81% of Russians failed the scientific test, and critical thinking is now on the wanted list.

April 1st is the only day of the year when even the most serious news requires a finger-swiping test. However, according to a recent VTsIOM poll, for 81% of our fellow citizens, April Fools’ Day lasts 365 days a year. According to “sensational data,” the majority of Russians unanimously believe in gnomes, mermaids, and other “evil spirits.”

If you stop for a second, this news seems catastrophic. But let’s breathe and approach it with the critical mind.

Numbers that don’t add up…

VTsIOM is a “respected” organization, but when they publish data showing that 81% believe in mythical creatures, a logical question arises: who was surveyed and what exactly were they asking?

Because if you go out into the street and ask a passerby, “Do you believe in gnomes?” you’ll likely hear a mumble or a suggestion to move on. If you ask the question differently: “Do you believe that in the forest, in addition to physical bodies, there exists some kind of energy, a spirit of the place, or perhaps an entity that our ancestors called a leshy?” the percentage of “believers” can truly be off the charts.

The difference between “believing in a bearded dwarf in a cap” and “recognizing the complexity of the world beyond what a school biology textbook describes” is colossal. But headlines, as usual, choose the most delicious ones—those about gnomes.

Disaster or Norm?

Experts are sounding the alarm: “The scientific method has given way to faith in the unproven.”

On the one hand, this concern is not new. The human brain is lazy and craves simple answers. It’s easier to believe that “the mermaid tangled the net” than to understand the bottom topography and hydrodynamics of currents. It’s easier to say “the house spirit is playing around” than to look for a crack in the window frame that’s letting in a draft.

On the other hand, calling this a “failure of the scientific worldview” is to confuse cause and effect. A scientific worldview in its purest form is the preserve of a relatively narrow circle of enthusiasts. Most people live in a symbiosis of the rational and the irrational. A person can simultaneously believe in superstitions (not to cross black cat’s path) and work as an engineer at a nuclear power plant. This is a cognitive dissonance that allows the psyche not to go crazy from the awareness of the chaos of existence.

The Main Danger: Fraudsters and Critical Reason

The most serious thing in this story isn’t the gnomes. Gnomes are harmless. The dangerous correlation is between a lack of critical thinking and vulnerability to fraud.

The experts are absolutely right here.

If a person is accustomed to accepting the unprovable (entities, magic crystals, “unique” methods) on faith, it won’t be difficult for them to accept a call from a bank’s security service or a healer from the Caucasus who will remove a curse for 300,000 rubles.

Believing in the unproven is a broken filter. When the filter breaks, everything from fairy tales about mermaids to financial pyramids flies into the mind. And if mermaids are a matter of cultural code and folklore, then the loss of money and apartments is a direct threat to national security.

From April 1st: don’t trust anyone, but verify!

Given today’s date, we have a unique opportunity to reach an agreement.

Let’s consider this VTsIOM survey not a cry from the heart of sociologists, but a brilliant April Fool’s message to society. A message that exposed the problem in a grotesque form.

Yes, 81% is a big number. But if this figure makes even one person think: “What are my beliefs based on? Do they have any evidence? Will my own ‘gnomes’ sell me out to another phone scammer?” then the number was worth it.

The scientific method isn’t about forbidding belief in miracles. The scientific method is about demanding proof when it comes to real actions: purchases, investments, treatment, and choosing a path.

After all, believing in mermaids is aesthetics and tradition. But believing that someone owes you money for nothing, or that a pill can be replaced with a spell, is already a diagnosis.

So, from April 1st on. Don’t trust anyone, not even VTsIOM with its 81%. Double-check. And remember: if you see a gnome, immediately check the carbon dioxide levels in the room or call a psychiatrist.  If a beautiful mermaid asks you to transfer money to a secure account, call the police.

Critical reason is the only entity whose existence we can be 100% certain of.