Sacred Truths
A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices.
— William James
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I began this series of posts with a question: what makes people believe improbable and/or irrational things?
I’m referring to people who believe in Bigfoot, or ghosts, or reincarnation. People who think we faked the Moon landings, or think fluoride and aspartame are conspiracies to sedate and control the masses.
I’m referring to those who say Jesus will return to the Earth within the next 40 years. Fully half of adult Christians in the U.S. claim to believe that.
In my earlier posts, in an effort to understand how and why people buy into ideas that are wrong, wrong-headed, or wildly unlikely, I went into the evolution of the human brain, and I mentioned the triune brain theory, which helps to explain how our beliefs and opinions are formed.
The evidence is becoming clearer that we are predisposed by our genes to reach certain conclusions and hold certain opinions — even when they fly in the face of reason.
But the thing is, we are the smartest and most advanced life form on the planet. Aren’t we capable of seeing a crazy idea for what it is?
Why doesn’t our neocortex do its job, and sift through the facts logically, and separate the mental wheat from the chaff? Why do so many people keep the chaff?
The most likely answer: the human brain is so amazing, it can fool itself.
When we are confronted with evidence that shoots down a strongly-held belief, we have an uncanny ability to dismiss the evidence and cling to the belief.
We do it because if we rethink the matter and change our position, we would be admitting we were wrong. That could lead to (sob) mental conflict and anguish, injury to our self-image, damage to our reputation, and who knows what else.
Denial is the crucial element here. When a brain is determined to wall out an inconvenient truth, you can bet that denial is the cornerstone of the effort.
And ironically, people with higher intelligence are better at the art of denial than average boneheads.
Our brains help us fool ourselves in other ways, too.
First, we have a remarkable ability to cherry-pick for evidence that supports our pre-existing beliefs. We do this while blithely ignoring the contradictory facts that we trip over in the process.
Second, some beliefs are so highly-regarded within a given group that they become Sacred Truths. They are elevated to a special status and are deemed inviolate. Not subject to further discussion.
Inevitably, when outsiders question a Sacred Truth, they are denounced as evil and dangerous. Don’t listen to those heretics. Non-believers are out to get us. Circle the wagons.
To the dogmatic brain, labeling contrary evidence as malevolent, and viewing the bearers of the evidence as blasphemers, is highly effective.
By shutting out that pesky evidence, the brain not only protects itself from unpleasant emotional conflict, but also avoids a bout of honest reasoning, which is mentally and physically taxing.
Demonizing other people and ideas also has a social advantage: it helps protect the power of the group leaders.
In any group situation, the leaders benefit from the status quo. Change is their enemy.
In religion and politics, in business and academia, the old guard will vigorously defend their Sacred Truths. After all, if an important group tenet were to be revealed as false, then maybe the people in charge aren‘t so reliable, either.
Final Thoughts
When Carl Sagan died in 1996, we lost an important advocate of science, the scientific method, and critical thinking.
Sagan is relevant here because he was a champion of honest, logical thinking. He also was quick to denounce its absence, which leads people to believe irrational things. That, in turn, allows foolish claptrap to find its way into the public arena and public policy.
When the knee-jerk tendencies of our reptilian and mammalian brains are not held in check (by the neocortex, as nothing else is capable of doing it), we get pseudoscience, non-science, and a host of crackpot political and religious ideas that are not only counter-productive, but also genuinely harmful.
I might add that always at work in this scenario, deftly pulling strings, is an army of opportunists who know how to control fearful, gullible people and — surprise — relieve them of their money.
At the individual level, there is a simple and obvious solution to all of this.
Put your neocortex in gear. Operate your brain intelligently.
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The truth may be puzzling. It may take some work to grapple with. It may be counter-intuitive. It may contradict deeply held prejudices. It may not be consonant with what we desperately want to be true. But our preferences do not determine what is true.
— Carl Sagan
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