A sword in a field.

[Rayaan]

You think I'm an atheist, pretending to be a theist with doubts who is admitting to having those doubts in order to make people identify with the person I'm only pretending to be?

Of course, I don't really know what you are. Maybe you are a theist, or maybe not. I don't have the ability to read your mind nor look into your heart.

However, based on your posts in this forum, I get a suspicion that you are not a Christian as you claim to be because you've been constantly pointing out faults with Christianity and the Bible (such as when you compared religion as a "mind slavery" in one of your threads) and you're even telling us how biased you are about your religious beliefs, and yet you say that you find a great amount of bliss and personal satisfaction in Christianity simply because it "works" for you, which is the same religion that you are constantly telling us about how messed up it is ...

Also, as I said before, if you know and admit that your religious beliefs are confirmation biases, then I don't think that you really believe what you only claim to believe. It's as if you are admitting to everyone that you are intellectually dishonest (by saying that your beliefs are actually confirmation biases). Do you agree that you are intellectually dishonest? If your answer to that is no, then you should also agree that you having confirmation bias is not intellectually dishonest either.

I mean, you sound to me as if you just came to this forum and started telling everyone "Hey guys, I'm a Christian because it just works for me! Oh, but guess what? I also have a lot of confirmation biases when it comes to my religion haha, and I'm very inconsistent also, and I don't want to fix any of this problem either because ... well ... well ... I just like being biased and dishonest with myself! And I don't even really care much, lol ... whatever."

^ That was a very crudely put summary, I know, but that is more or less the gist of the message that you've been getting across here in regards to your religious beliefs - and it sounds strangely and comically ironic to me - even almost as if you're a poe (and a very successful one at that, too, if you are). I'm not saying that you are a poe, but I'm just wondering.

Just my thoughts, though. Don't take it too heavily.

[Jacob(smooth)]

Ok.

Yeah, I'm really not sure what I am any more. You're right I am critical of a belief system to which i belong. I don't see that as dishonest, I could give you a long list of things don't like about living in the UK. Doesn't mean I don't want to live here. And yes I'm aware that the reason for my faith, such as it is, owes more to convenience than "truth".
I dunno.

[Rayaan]

Yeah, I'm really not sure what I am any more.

You will probably be sure again a couple of hours later ... and then unsure again, and sure again, and unsure again, and sure again, and unsure again ... back and forth, right?

You're right I am critical of a belief system to which i belong. I don't see that as dishonest,

But do you think that it is intellectually dishonest to have confirmation bias in your religion? I didn't ask whether being critical of a belief system is dishonest or not.

[Jacob(smooth)]

Rayaan, EVERYONE has confirmation bias in their psychology, and our psychology informs every view we hold. I'm aware of mine, how about you?

[Rayaan]

Yes, I'm aware that everyone almost everyone has confirmation bias in their psychology. I probably have it, too, but I'm just not so much aware of it ...

I think it becomes intellectually dishonest once you realize a bias of yours and then you still hold on to that bias, willingly, as you do.

[Jacob(smooth)]

No, I hold on to the conclusion, knowing it may be wrong, because it helped me when rationality failed me.

[Rayaan]

No, I hold on to the conclusion, knowing it may be wrong, because it helped me when rationality failed me.

So, if holding on to biased conclusions helped you more than rationality, then why did you create an entire thread as if confirmation bias is a bad thing to have?

If you think that confirmation bias helps you, then you shouldn't care if other people have a lot of confirmation bias as well because you don't consider your own confirmation bias to be a bad thing at all. You hold on to confirmation bias because it helps you. And yet you made a thread as if confirmation bias is something that everyone should try to eliminate from their minds, as if it's a bad thing to have. That is the reason I considered your OP to be disingenuous and hypocritical the moment I saw it.


As for "knowing it may be wrong" ... well, obviously. I know that my beliefs "may be wrong" also. But you go much further than that:

I mask the truth with a comforting lie (or perhaps model is a better word) ... and I spend all day looking forward to going home.

But at the end of the day I don't really want to examine those truths too closely.

Ignorance is bliss!

That is not just knowing that you "may be wrong." Rather, that is you being deliberately ignorant.

Sorry, not just deliberately ignorant ... but also blissfully ignorant.

[Rayaan]

This is an interesting piece I was reading on how and why we form biases. Full article at the link below.

The theory of motivated reasoning builds on a key insight of modern neuroscience (PDF): Reasoning is actually suffused with emotion (or what researchers often call "affect"). Not only are the two inseparable, but our positive or negative feelings about people, things, and ideas arise much more rapidly than our conscious thoughts, in a matter of milliseconds—fast enough to detect with an EEG device, but long before we're aware of it. That shouldn't be surprising: Evolution required us to react very quickly to stimuli in our environment. It's a "basic human survival skill," explains political scientist Arthur Lupia of the University of Michigan. We push threatening information away; we pull friendly information close. We apply fight-or-flight reflexes not only to predators, but to data itself.

We're not driven only by emotions, of course—we also reason, deliberate. But reasoning comes later, works slower—and even then, it doesn't take place in an emotional vacuum. Rather, our quick-fire emotions can set us on a course of thinking that's highly biased, especially on topics we care a great deal about.

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2011...ris-mooney

[Jacob(smooth)]

 then why did you create an entire thread as if confirmation bias is a bad 

That's your inference not my words. Confirmation bias is a bad way to draw decisions, by and large, but even a blind squirrel finds the occasional nut. I'm not going to let go of my nut just because I found it a certain way. I can appreciate what believe without defending the means I came to it.

If you think that confirmation bias helps you, then you shouldn't care if other people have a lot of confirmation bias as well because you don't consider your own confirmation bias to be a bad thing at all. You hold on to confirmation bias because it helps you. And yet you made a thread as if confirmation bias is something that everyone should try to eliminate from their minds, as if it's a bad thing to have.

I'm neither proud nor ashamed of my confirmation bias. I'm merely aware of it. I like to find stuff out about myself. This video helped me to see things things In myself. You ascribe me motivations and inference which I never had. YOU tell me I'm making this as if confirmation bias is something everyone should try to eliminate (I would never be so presumptuous as to tell everyone what they should do) then criticise me for doing so! Do you see the problem here? You're telling me what I MEANT (which is not what I said) then finding fault with that.

You appear to be assuming that what I think is right for me is what I infer should be right for all. I don't believe that. Is it hypocrisy to say I like jellied eels but you probably won't?

 That is the reason I considered your OP to be disingenuous and hypocritical the moment I saw it.

Is it indeed? Or is it just a bit close to home for you. I'm starting to wonder Rayaan, if you are projecting.

That is not just knowing that you "may be wrong." Rather, that is you being deliberately ignorant.

Sorry, not just deliberately ignorant ... but also blissfully ignorant

Possibly even deliberately blissfully ignorant. Why should that trouble you? I'm not pissing in your front garden. From your perspective guess every atheist here who has not bothered to seek the truth in the Qu'ran must also be wilfully ignorant, you don't seem to give them a tough time for it.

[LastPoet]