(January 19, 2017 at 2:59 am)robvalue Wrote: Yup, what you see is psychological defenses at work. Protect the deeply held beliefs at all costs. Say absolutely anything. DEFLECT.
This isn't unique to religious beliefs, but it's probably the most common and extreme example. The brain likes to protect its beliefs, and it's often like people "can't hear themselves".
I've seen this in the extreme with non-religious beliefs as well. Chemtrail believers have it especially bad. The origin of chemtrail beliefs is LITERALLY some guy walking out his door, looking up, seeing contrails and saying to himself "I wonder if that's the government spreading mysterious chemicals in our atmosphere". Based on JUST THAT the entire belief system was born. There was never any evidence to suggest it or reason to believe, one guy just wondered if it was and so it was.
It can also be pretty bad with almost all woo beliefs. I've seen it in UFO believers, Bigfoot believers, ghost believers, conspiracy theorists, Republicans who think the media is biased or liberals are evil, you name it. They all have similar defense mechanisms in place to protect their beliefs. I once had a lady spend 20 minutes trying to convince me that Obama's birth certificate was a forged birth certificate because the font wasn't created until the '80s and a hundred different reasons and, when that didn't work, tried to convince me instead that it was a document Hawaii issues when children are born in other countries. So within a 40 minute time period this woman tried to convince me that it was BOTH a forged document and a legitimate document and BOTH a birth certificate and not a birth certificate. She held two beliefs at the same time which were mutually exclusive to one another and went straight from one to the other without missing a beat, completely sure that both were true even though that was doubly impossible. Not to mention that it's just downright stupid to believe that all foreign births have to be registered in Hawaii for some reason. Somehow I don't think the other countries of the world agreed to that. I have no proof, mind you. It's just a feeling...
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