The most interesting thing I took away was the apparent disparity between the reaction of LW'ers and the reaction Sam reports from his friends. Almost everyone here seems open to the possibility, and even consider it plausible, while by my reading of Sam's reports about his friends, they are completely dismissive of the possibility.
Does this make you skeptical that Sam is correctly reporting the reactions he's getting from his friends? I would have guessed that he had smarter friends than his report indicates.
It makes me skeptical in a certain sense. I don't question Sam's honesty, but I do question his account in much the same way I'd question the interpretation of events of a narrator in a Browning poem - there's what the narrator says, and then there's what's going on, if you read between the lines.
I can totally see a friend of Sam being blissfully unconcerned with Sam's pronouncement, as he thinks, "there's Sam on his soapbox again", while making half hearted excuses for continuing to use his fireplace. If I knew Sam, I could even see myself yank...
Sam Harris, in his recent article called The Fireplace Delusion, tries to make you feel what it's like to react to a cached belief being irreparably destroyed. Just incase you forgot what your apostasy (if you had one, of course) was like in its early stages.
What are some of the Fireplace Delusions you've come across in your days?
EDIT: WOODSMOKE HEALTH EFFECTS