(September 20, 2017 at 1:12 pm)drfuzzy Wrote: You can pick up any book written by anyone, anywhere, and if you wish desperately enough to find a deity hiding in those lines of text, you will find one. You will create one. Then you will convince yourself that you didn't create it, a magical invisible friend actually talked to you. When you take off the worshipful glasses used to read a religious text, you will see that what is written there is very obviously man-made and flawed.
This. If we want to believe something badly enough, our brains will happily oblige and even rearrange our other beliefs to make them line up with what we want to be true.
Taking conscious control of this weird process is the way out of innumerable difficulties, including dismantling bad habits or obsessive thoughts.