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The Mandela Effect is such a ridiculous problem for the human brain. It's something where multiple people can share the same false memory. It was coined when a person realized a bunch of people, maybe thousands, had believed Nelson Mandela was dead in the 80s (he didn't actually die until 2013).

How can anyone say humanity was "designed" when our memories are so easily corrupted?

PolyWolf 7 Oct 9
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well, that's not the only reason one shouldn't perceive humans, or anything else, as designed, but if you go with the idea that there is a god and that humans are made in that god's image, then that god has a design flaw, which makes the god imperfect, which makes the god rather useless as an object of worship or a cited source of creation. whose flaw would that imperfect god reflect, then? anyway, i am more interested in this effect than in the question of what it says about anyone's creationist views. what does one do about that effect?

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It's mostly not that important in terms of things people think about. The two major ones I've heard outside of Nelson Mandela himself are that people swear it was the Berenstein Bears, rather than it actually being the Berenstain Bears, and an odd one involving Sinbad the comedian being in a movie in the 90s called Shazaam, appearing as a genie.

To answer your question, I guess the only thing we can do is be vigilant and be open. If someone is saying the way you remember things isn't right, don't be afraid to look it up. I know you wouldn't be, but I honestly don't have a good solution. False memories can be a real issue, especially in places like actually psychiatrist's offices.

@PolyWolf that's weird. i have a memory i know isn't real too, but i don't know if anyone else shares it. there was a movie called carry on nurse, from the carry on series of course, and at the very end (pun intended as you'll see) of the film, a guy is having his temperature taken but instead of a thermometer in his ass, he has a daisy. i remember this from my childhood! only it's not there. there is no way that movie ever actually showed a daisy sticking out of a guy's butt. that just wasn't done. now i find out from wikipedia that it was a daffodil, which isn't a huge thing, since i might not have known the difference as a small child, but how is it that i remember SEEING it, rather than remembering its being implied?

here is the scene. i guess my imagination just filled in the blanks!

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@PolyWolf how many napoleons ARE there, i wonder?

yes, one has to rely on real memories and sometimes backup, too.

oh here's one! humphrey bogart saying "play it again, sam" in casablanca! he didn't say it.

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@genessa ...he didn't?! Crap.

@PolyWolf sometimes i learn these things from trivial pursuit; that one i already knew, though, having seen the film so many times. sometimes trivial pursuit gets things wrong, though! one question was about a 1955 film i recognized through rather freakish circumstances, having seen it, or part of it, new, in the movie theatre, on my 13th birthday, a day i also got food poisoning. that was 1965, not '55. i knew the card was wrong. i had a hard time convincing my guy richard though. don't believe everything you read, i warned him!

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@genessa Awesome. Can I ask what movie, out of curiosity?

@PolyWolf oh okay you get the whole story, then! i was spy-mad. my folks knew it. there were two new spy movies just coming out and my birthday coming up, and they asked me which i wanted to go see before my birthday and which on it, for they also wanted to see both. i chose the ipcress file for the pre-birthday outing and the man who came in from the cold for the birthday present, before which we went out to a chinese restaurant for dinner. i guess it wasn't such a good dinner, because i puked my way through the movie and had to be taken home. to this day i haven't seen the ending.

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