The reason you don't hear about psychics that have found out differently is because they aren't psychics any more. The psychic and the fundamentalist you mentioned are one dimensional caricatures because their motivations don't conform to your definition of knowledge. Maybe they are motivated by something other than understanding of the world around them. Some call it money. Others call it power. Like I said, stupidity is just self inflicted ignorance.

If you want proof of what I'm talking about, just ask yourself if you're in there. I have every reason to believe you are not a Turing machine. Why are you posting here? Instinct? What do you think gets Richard Dawkins out of bed every morning? He's not a Vulcan. To find out, you would have to get to know him - personally. As a human being with a world inside of him. Maybe he cares deeply about truth and an accurate understanding of the world around us. Maybe he is outraged at the damage fundamentalist religion is inflicting on our culture. Maybe he's found a way to sell a helluva lot of books. I expect it's a combination of all three reasons and who knows how many more.

The last thing I want to do is insult or annoy you. You haven't done anything to deserve it and if I do so I apologize in advance. But this whole "other way of knowing" issue is starting to look like a blinkered dogma that denies great swaths of the world around us because it isn't designed to deal with it. The earth isn't six thousand years old and every man, woman, and child on this planet has self consciousnesses that compels them to do whatever it is they do, right, wrong, wise, or foolish.

There are exactly as many "other ways of knowing" as there are people. If you want a definition of what that may be or what it is supposed to find out, you'll have to get to know each one of them. Personally.

I need an editor.