Because it also mentions woo, so I think it’s talking about a broader class if unjustified beliefs than you think.
My earlier comment mentioned that “there are also lots of different claims that seem (or even are) irrational but are pointing to true facts about the world.” That was intended to touch upon “woo”; e.g. meditation used to be, and to some extent still is, considered “woo”, but there nonetheless seem to be reasonable grounds to think that there’s nonetheless something of value to be found in meditation (despite there also being various crazy claims around it).
My above link mentions a few other examples (out-of-body experiences, folk traditions, “Ki” in martial arts) that have claims around them that are false if taken as the literal truth, but are still pointing to some true aspect of the world. Notably, a policy of “reject all woo things” could easily be taken to imply rejecting all such things as superstition that’s not worth looking at, thus missing out on the parts of the woo that were actually valuable.
IME, the more I look into them, the more I come to find that “woo” things that I’d previously rejected as not worth looking at because of them being obviously woo and false, are actually pointing to significantly valuable things. (Even if there is also quite a lot of nonsense floating around those same topics.)
I agree, but in that case you should say make it clear how your interpretation differs from the author’s.
My earlier comment mentioned that “there are also lots of different claims that seem (or even are) irrational but are pointing to true facts about the world.” That was intended to touch upon “woo”; e.g. meditation used to be, and to some extent still is, considered “woo”, but there nonetheless seem to be reasonable grounds to think that there’s nonetheless something of value to be found in meditation (despite there also being various crazy claims around it).
My above link mentions a few other examples (out-of-body experiences, folk traditions, “Ki” in martial arts) that have claims around them that are false if taken as the literal truth, but are still pointing to some true aspect of the world. Notably, a policy of “reject all woo things” could easily be taken to imply rejecting all such things as superstition that’s not worth looking at, thus missing out on the parts of the woo that were actually valuable.
IME, the more I look into them, the more I come to find that “woo” things that I’d previously rejected as not worth looking at because of them being obviously woo and false, are actually pointing to significantly valuable things. (Even if there is also quite a lot of nonsense floating around those same topics.)
That’s fair.