[ExI] a little essay on anger and respect

[spike at rainier66.com]

...> On Behalf Of Ben Zaiboc via extropy-chat
Subject: Re: [ExI] a little essay on anger and respect

>... Belief overrides reason every time, and for the vast majority of
people, it's their feelings that drive their thinking and behaviour, not
reason... Ben

Ben your comment is almost right.  Belief overrides reason almost every time
for the vast majority of people.

I speak as one (of only two people I know) who reasoned my way out of my
religion.  I saw nothing morally or ethically wrong with it, still don't.
But the underlying theory was incorrect.  It took me years to come to grips
with that, but eventually I did.

There are remaining contradictions in a way.  I personally know people who
accept and embrace my former religion in a way that saved their lives and
made them into decent people.  They "know" the theory isn't right, but go
along with it anyway because the fake-it-till-you-make-it notion works for
some.  They have a higher tolerance for cognitive dissonance than I do
perhaps.

spike