The Gumby Land thinking is the belief in something that cannot be proven to be right or wrong. It is an idea that we have accepted to be true or valid based on mere speculation rather than proven facts as they are in science. Wolfgang Paul's statement that says "you are not even wrong" hits the nail on the head as to defining what Gumby Land thinking is. It basically says that you have a belief or idea which you have accepted to be true, but you don't have the proof to back up its legitimacy thus that particular belief or idea cannot be classified as being right or wrong because it hasn't been tested and proven to be right or wrong hence Wolfgang Paul's statement, "you are not even wrong."
Our world is so diverse that Gumby Land thinking can be found at every turn of the corner, especially when you look into religion and old customs or traditions. For example, in the Jehovah's Witness religion there is a belief that a number of 144,000 people will be chosen to go into heaven. I am not a Jehovah's Witness so I am very ignorant to all the details that goes into this belief, but generally speaking, even for a believer in God like myself, that idea does not make sense to me. Members of this religion devote many hours of their lives to practice and spread the word of their religion, trying very hard to recruit more and more people to join them in their belief. All that time and effort and you will never know for sure that you will be one out of the 144,000 people chosen to go heaven? This is much like my own belief that everyone has a place in heaven, I believe this to be true, yet it hasn't been tested and proven because it is impossible to do so and for that very reason my belief or that of Jehovah's Witnesses is neither right nor wrong. Another example, is the belief in reincarnation. Personally, I have mixed feelings on this particular belief. This is yet another subject that I am somewhat uninformed on so I can't say much on it rather than questioning its validity. I have heard from different people that the reason we experience deja vu is because we have been here before in another form of life. Obviously this has not been proven nor can it be proven, but again, the fact that it hasn't or it can't be does not make a believer in it right or wrong. It is just another way of Gumby Land thinking.
I think Wolfgang Paul's witticism of "you are not even wrong" is avoided because it discredits a certain belief or subject leaving it open for experimentation if such experimentation is even a possibility. The answer or evidence we seek may be as plain as the nose on our face yet we want to continue to believe otherwise.
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