Yes, but only because we're outsiders who don't share this belief. A huge number of Europeans believe in astrology, which is substantially more ludicrous than this. Lots of Japanese people believe that your blood type controls what kind of personality you have. As an Irreligious Atheist, I get the same feeling when I see the number of people following various religions.
I was planning on just enjoying the ride and not offering any commentary in here on this one, but this really got me
Astrology is not substantially more ludicrous than this. Astrology is based on long-discredited concepts of celestial events influencing human behavior and events, from a time before heliocentrism, let alone a modern understanding of the cosmos. No one but a tiny- probably not even statistically significant- population of even people who
believe in astrology would claim that it is science, and even if they did they would be quite unlikely to try and use legitimate modern science (astronomy) to back up its claims, since there would be no evidence to be found.
Astrology is in this sense a belief system with plenty in common with any religion or cult or system of "spirituality," "enlightenment," etc. No attempt beyond even the most superficial is made to say that these are science, even by extreme adherents to such views.
Fan Death on the other hand is
explicitly portrayed to citizens of South Korea as based on modern science.
Look at this shit from the OP:
If bodies are exposed to electric fans or air conditioners for too long, it causes [the] bodies to lose water and [causes] hypothermia. If directly in contact with [air current from] a fan, this could lead to death from [an] increase of carbon dioxide saturation concentration [sic] and decrease of oxygen concentration. The risks are higher for the elderly and patients with respiratory problems. From 2003 [to] 2005, a total of 20 cases were reported through the CISS involving asphyxiations caused by leaving electric fans and air conditioners on while sleeping. To prevent asphyxiation, timers should be set, wind direction should be rotated and doors should be left open.
These are words that
mean something in terms modern science understand. They're just silly and wrong and ridiculous.
A more relevant analogy would be to Scientology, or even better, Intelligent Design (which I would say is
equally ludicrous to Fan Death, no more and no less).
They are both psuedoscientific theories that begin basically as a sort of uneasy feeling about the world held by a certain community, followed by an enormous leap to a dramatic conclusion despite no evidence at all being collected on the way, and then tiny bits an pieces filled in after the fact to make the entire package
seem based in science. I literally had "irreducible complexity" flash in my brain while reading "increase of carbon dioxide saturation concentration"- jargon meant to lend an air of scientific authority to what ultimately is
patent nonsense.
Astrology may be
patent nonsense as well, but doesn't occupy the same sphere as these grand marshall champions of bullshit.
