Woolly Thinking Makes Me Go...

ARRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGHHHHH!!!!!! My list of woolly thinkers/thinking: FundamentalistsCreationists (see above)New Age SpiritualityEx-Gay Theologians/Apologists"Intelligent Design"People who say that there really are angels and/or demonsCryptozoologistsUFOlogists"The Moon Landing Was Staged" But in my opinion the worst offenders are the people who do not recognize their metaphors as METAPHORS and confuse them for FACTS (a category of person which more or less subsumes the entire list above). What brought this on today? The Asian Massage Techniques class that began this morning.  Only 10 sessions, so 30 hours.  Just enough to get an intro.  I knew it was coming, I wasn't looking forward to it, it's here now, and somehow I'm going to have to get through it without offending everyone in the class or having an extremely negative attitude. "Based on 5,000 years of tradition..." Yes, and Jesus is coming back ANY DAY now, a traditional notion that has hung on for 2,000 years.   Excuse my language, but fuck that shit.  Thousands of years of TRADITION do NOT constitute a FACT. What it DOES suggest to me is that the metaphor is powerful, that it resonates with people somehow, and so it persists.  NOT, however, A FACT. So without Western scientific corroboration I am not too inclined to believe in energy fields or chakras or meridians. So of course, a rationale for using ancient Eastern philosophies is the "unreliability" of science and rational thinking. A DISDAIN FOR RATIONAL THINKING!!!!!!!! What.  The.  Fuck. Oh, and as it turns out, questions about said Asian modalities appear on the national certification exam for massage therapists, so the woolly thinking extends beyond the idiosyncrasies of my particular school.