COGNITIVE DISSONACE
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Topic: COGNITIVE DISSONACE
Posted By: Mahdi The Seeke
Subject: COGNITIVE DISSONACE
Date Posted: 13 November 2012 at 12:12am
An interesting article i read. Although it was addressed to christians, it can be applied to all religious beliefs. Follow the evidence to wherever it taked you even if it may not make you comfortable. I believe the harsh truth is better than a soothing lie.
Cognitive Dissonance and Christian Belief
If you and I want to have healthy, happy, productive minds, we will need a worldview that is close to reality.
By Merle Hertzler
Have you ever been in a room filled with discord? People are arguing loudly. Nobody is listening. The resulting dissonance can be most uncomfortable.
Dissonance can occur in the mind also. When an important decision must be made some ideas and beliefs in the mind will argue with other ideas and beliefs in the same mind. Ideas and beliefs, which are also known as cognitions, can be in discord. This leads us to experience cognitive dissonance . Cognitive dissonance is no fun. It is like a shouting match within one's own mind.
The mind does not like these squabbles, and so it automatically works to eliminate the dissonance. There are several strategies that the mind will use to minimize the discord. Sometimes it will convince itself that the difference is not important, and push the issue aside. Other times, the mind will refuse to listen to the newest beliefs. Sometimes the mind will seek additional support for the favored view, thus outshouting the unfavored beliefs, and lowering the cognitive competition. Such dissonance-reducing mechanisms free the mind from the discord that cripples it, and the mind finds relief. But there is a sense in which these mechanisms are very bad. The new ideas that are suppressed by these mechanisms may have actually been right. But the mind is not listening to them. The new thoughts are bounced out of the conscious mind. The mind fails to gain new knowledge that it could have gained. The dissonance has been reduced, and that is what the mind craves.
This may be why many people listen to certain talk-radio shows. Many of the listeners have a strong opinion on religion or politics. The listeners know of people that disagree with their views. The knowledge that there are different political views causes cognitive dissonance. Some cognitions in the mind say that the traditional beliefs are true. Other cognitions say intelligent people disagree with these ideas. The cognitions are in discord. Such folks come to the radio for relief from the dissonance. The talk-show host rattles off a string of opinions favoring the target audience's views. To appear open-minded, dissenters are allowed to call in to the show and present opposing arguments. But before the dissenter has had a chance to fully develop his argument, he is cut off. We are then informed that this person was an *****, and that this is why he disagrees. The faithful have now "learned" additional reasons from the host for cherishing their favored belief, and they "learn" why they so often hear from folks who disagree. They "learn" that people disagree because they are *****s. With the views of dissenters explained, they now feel safe in ignoring them. (But I am not sure that all of the dissenters are *****s. Even if they are all *****s, I am not sure that this would be a good reason for ignoring their arguments, for st**id people are sometimes right.) The person who is suffering form cognitive dissonance, and is seeking relief, is often quite satisfied to swallow any argument that tells him he can safely ignore opposing views.
You and I each have a worldview, which is the sum of our ideas and beliefs. If our worldview is far from reality, we will experience much cognitive dissonance, for we will often hear and see things that do not fit well with our worldview. Our minds will become overloaded with cognitive dissonance, and will block out the new information. On the other hand, if our worldview is close to reality, most new information will fit into our existing understanding of the world with little modification. We will only need to make minor adjustments to accommodate the new information. We will experience little cognitive dissonance. We can then learn many new things.
Cognitive Dissonance Links
Cognitive Dissonance by James Atherton A brief summary with links to more exhaustive studies. (offsite)
Cognitive Dissonance from Wikipedia (offsite)
If you and I want to have a healthy, happy, productive mind, we will need a worldview that is close to reality. Our incoming observations will need to cause little cognitive dissonance. This makes it important that we learn to make our worldview as close to reality as possible. We need to sort through the conflicting information we receive, and determine what is most likely true. We need to be able to analyze the data, and critique each idea we hear. This is known as critical thinking, and it is very important.
But before we discuss critical thinking, let us first look at some ineffective methods that people use to establish truth.
Authority
(click on the book)
Edmund Cohen shows the thinking processes used by Bible-believers, and how these can lead to problems. See also his article at And now - psychiatric wards for Born-again Christians only. (offsite)
One of the methods we learn early is to trust an authority. What is right? We ask our mom and dad, and they tell us what to believe. Mom and Dad are in charge, so we assume they must be right. It does not take long to learn that, although Mom and Dad are in charge, they are not always right--usually we learn it when we are two. Many parents do not accept it when children challenge their authority, and so they let it be known that they are indeed in charge, and that their way is right because they--the authority--declare that they are right. Many children will eventually learn to suppress their desire to question, think, and explore, and will learn to accept that the authority must be right. They may often rebel against authority, but they do not have good critical thinking skills, and do not have a better source of information than what they get from authority. So, sadly, they stop asking questions. This often becomes a model for thinking as the child grows. Do these children have questions about religion? They learn that certain religious authorities--those of the parent's religious persuasion--have the authoritative religious answers. Do these children have questions about science? Consult a science authority. Do they have questions about history? Consult a history authority. Do they have questions about psychology? Consult a psychology authority. For every question, these children learn that they must simply consult with the proper authority to get their canned answer. And so, sadly, they put aside their desire to question and explore for themselves, and they memorize what authority tells them.
Now authorities are very often right. If we select good authorities, we will find good answers. But authorities are sometimes wrong. Authorities are especially unreliable when they speak outside of their field of expertise. Even when they speak as an expert, they are sometimes wrong. That is why science, as a discipline, does not accept an answer just because a leading scientist says it is so. Instead, the scientific community submits the proposed ideas--even those of leading scientists--to a process known as peer review, in which others who can understand the argument review it carefully to see if there are any fatal flaws in it. If many capable reviewers have reviewed the idea carefully, and find no serious flaw in the argument, and if they have tried to challenge it, and find that it still stands, we can be confident that the idea is probably true. We believe it, not because authority confirms it, but because rational thought confirms it.
Christianity is, for many, a religion of authority. How do Christians know that Jesus rose from the dead? They have authorities that tell them so. How do they know the Bible is true? They have authorities that tell them so. And since the authorities tell them the Bible is true, than the Bible becomes an authority in everything it says. What should they think about abortion, euthanasia, or homosexuality? They will look at what their authority says. And so many Christians find themselves bound to their authority, and this establishes their worldview.
Authority is not always correct. As I have shown elsewhere, the scripture is not always correct.[1] In fact, we have seen that many of the Bible's recommendations are not good at all. [2] Sadly, the worldview of the scriptures is often far from reality; it is often what Arterburn and Felton refer to as Toxic Faith. Hence, Bible believers experience cognitive dissonance and it's associated problems when they try to believe that the things in the Bible are true, regardless of the evidence.
Examples of this can be found every day in debates on the web. Bible believers are shown errors in the Bible. It is difficult for many to admit that the Bible actually says what it does, and they struggle vainly to make it all fit together. [3]
Prayer/Intuition
What do you do when you are faced with a very important decision? If you are a Christian, you will most likely pray about it. And you will pray that God will show you the answer. How does God answer? Many Christians will look at the thoughts that come to their mind when they pray, and assume this must be God speaking to them.
Decision-making by way of prayer does not seem like a good idea to me. How do you know that the thought that comes to you during prayer--or immediately after praying--comes from God? Yet many people assume that God is leading through this time of prayer. But is there any real evidence that this leads to better decisions than would be obtained by careful review of the pertinent facts? If prayer causes people to make better decisions, why do we not find that Christians are way ahead of others in making the proper decisions? Both Christians and non-Christians alike appear to have their share of good decisions and bad decisions. If prayer is so effective at leading us to the correct decision, why has that effect not been demonstrated in controlled studies?
Unfortunately facts often take second place to the perceived leading of God.
Could it be that guidance through prayer is nothing more than intuition? Is it no better than just pulling an idea out of the air and going with it? I prefer reason. For unless someone can show me clear evidence--a few stories are not real evidence--I will remain skeptical about decisions that are made on a whim and a prayer.
Critical Thinking Links
This is the Scientific Method by Norman W. Edmund. An excellent overview of science and how it works. (offsite)
Fallacy Files by Gary N. Curtis. An introduction to logical fallacies, and why they are not considered to be valid reasoning. (offsite)
Baloney Detection by Michael Shermer. How to tell the difference between scientific truth and baloney. (offsite)
There is another way in which intuition is favored over reason in some circles. Some teachers teach that men naturally use reason and logic, whereas women naturally use intuition and feelings to determine truth. This seems to be a most crippling view of women. Our society has arrived where it is because people have learned to use critical thinking skills involving observation, reason, and logic. I find no reason to believe that men are superior to women in these skills. And so people of both sexes should be taught to use their reasoning skills. It is an insult to tell women they are not as good at reasoning skills, and that they should rely instead on feelings and intuition as a means of finding truth. Sadly, many have listened to the concept that women are inferior at reasoning, and think that they can best develop their worldview by using their intuition instead of logical reasoning.
Critical Thinking
There is a way of thinking that is better than relying on authority, intuition, or prayer-induced thoughts. It is the process of critical thinking. This involves careful observation, and the use of reason to determine the truth. To think critically, one must ask questions and be open to all views. One must seek to understand different sides of an argument. One must be fair-minded in his appraisal of the facts. One must suspend judgement until he has time to look at the available facts. One can than make a conclusion based on the facts.
Critical thinking works. It is the method that has been used by scientists for centuries, and it has brought us out of the Dark Ages. It has led to the scientific revolution. (For more information, see the side bar.)
Anthony Flew teaches us how to think straight.
(click on the book)
Many Christians support the use of critical thinking. They use it in their jobs and in their personal lives, but when it comes to religion, many stop using it. They turn to authority and tradition, refusing to hear dissenting information. Some Christians do try to use critical thinking to study their beliefs, but a funny thing happens when they are shown the evidence against cherished doctrines such as biblical inerrancy or the resurrection. Suddenly, they lose interest in critical thinking, and they turn back to "faith", in which they decide that they must surely be right, and that therefore the evidence doesn't matter. The cognitive dissonance has become too great. And so they seek to avoid the dissonance by ignoring the new evidence. I hope that you do not do that. I hope that you are open to all ideas, wherever they may lead you.
I conclude that, if you and I want to have a mind at peace, we will need to minimize cognitive dissonance by using critical thinking skills to develop an accurate worldview.
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