RE: Christians, please justify this for me
January 21, 2014 at 1:38 pm
(This post was last modified: January 21, 2014 at 1:44 pm by Simon Moon.)
(January 21, 2014 at 12:43 pm)Jacob(smooth) Wrote: Oh I am / was! I just found the cognitive dissonance of trying NOT to believe somewhat harder than the cognitive dissonance of believing.
How does not believing in something for which there is insufficient supporting evidence and valid/sound logic cause cognitive dissonance?
Quote:I'm certain that if I kept challenging myself and reminding myself that all the things I think of as real are probably products of my own psyche I could push past that, but why? As people told me there is no payoff.
But there are payoffs;
Intellectual honesty.
Knowing that your internal beliefs most likely map to reality more accurately.
Knowing that you will most likely be making important decisions based on a more accurate internal map.
I could go on...
You'd believe if you just opened your heart" is a terrible argument for religion. It's basically saying, "If you bias yourself enough, you can convince yourself that this is true." If religion were true, people wouldn't need faith to believe it -- it would be supported by good evidence.
