Why are so many people capable of believing anything?

[Siro]

This is something that I've wondered about for such a long time, and I really would like to hear what others think of the subject. I will try to be nice about it so that it stays civil.

I used to "believe" in religion when I was a child. It wasn't something I really looked into, and I simply accepted it because everyone else did. When I got older, it became apparent to me that my beliefs were not based in reality. I looked into other religions, specially during my time at BYU, since you're required to take so many religion classes. I found them all equally implausible. But as I got older, I came to realize it wasn't just mainstream religion. I understand how growing up with something makes it very difficult to evaluate it objectively, and I also know that once you're past a certain age, you become too invested in your community and their expectations to simply defect.

But people can believe in things are are absolutely and totally crazy, even though they themselves are neither crazy nor stupid. That is what baffles me the most. How can you walk into a Scientology building, and leave convinced that they are telling the truth? How about that old fart who claimed the world would end on the 21st of May of last year? Do you remember him? He had more than a hundred thousand believers. Many believed it so strongly that they were willing to invest fully in the prophesy, giving away all their belongings and such. Some were men and women of knowledge (academics, historians, engineers, etc). How is that possible? How can your experience with life lead you to believe that some random dude has divine knowledge about the end of the world? How can you think that all the other men with similar prophecies throughout history were simply different? How about all those people who join suicide cults or something similarly insane? I beg to understand!

 

[Saint Cy of JFC]

Probably because they feel a need to belong to something.

 

[Gyp Rosetti]

You must spread some reputation around...

 

[Siro]

Probably because they feel a need to belong to something.

Okay, I guess that's why people tend to form ideological or philosophical groups. But it is one thing to be a conservative or a liberal, which are life philosophies that is not entirely right or wrong by any reasonable standard (too many complicated issues that can be seen from many different angles), and believing something so ****ing crazy. I just cannot fathom how someone can believe something like alien reptilians taking over the government, but be perfectly normal otherwise. How?!

 

[Siro]

You must spread some reputation around...

Talking to me or Cy?

 

[Dr. Jones]

Talking to me or Cy?

Deductive reasoning leads me to Siro.

 

[Deleted member 848]

Because my mom and dad said I should

Seriously though, I just have this gut feeling that there is some inherent intricacy and mysticism with this world we live in, and I fully believe that this is a result of this world having a creator, or "God" if you will. Is this God exactly as represented by the Muslim faith? Or Mormon faith? Or Shintoism? The heck if I know. I just have had a lot of my personality impacted for the better as a result of my closeness to my faith, and I feel no reason to stop at any point. I do understand your point though.


EDIT: To properly answer your post, I don't think people ever try to look at something like faith in a very logical, deductive manner. To me, I feel that if a given faith seems to contribute a lot of comfortably, happiness, sureness, and/or hope in a person's life, then they'll pledge their allegiance to it.

 

[franklin]

I just cannot fathom how someone can believe something like alien reptilians taking over the government, but be perfectly normal otherwise. How?!

I've never read or listened to a David Icke disciple who is "perfectly normal otherwise" and I sure as hell have not met anyone willing to admit they are one.

I do know people who think everything CNBC reports on is information and market controlling. Seems somewhat reasonable yet at the same time bat **** crazy from an objective POV. Like reporting on the largest IPO in history is a "diversion".

 

[franklin]

Talking to me or Cy?

Oh, and here's your precious rep ya rep who're.

 

[Scat]

That's what faith is all about. Believing in something regardless the lack of hard proof. Some people can easily let their faith permeate every aspect of their lives where others need hard proof before they'll believe anything. And like you mentioned, it does not require a backwoods rube to have strong faith. There are some very well educated, very smart people that have great faith and are very religious.

 

[Siro]

Those are good responses, but I don't feel they answer the question. Faith was brought up several times. But I still don't understand why that's something at all. I don't mean the kind of faith that have you sleep at night knowing your family won't kill you in your sleep, but the type that makes you believe in something that is clearly false. And I mean false in the way humans judge truth from falsehood, which is through applied logic based on physical experience. Everyone got that, or otherwise you wouldn't be here. You know that needles hurt because they hurt every time you got an injection. If I am to tell you the needle I use does not cause pain, you'd ask for either an explanation or a demonstration. If I told you "it's a secret that you have to take on faith", you'd laugh in my face.

So I don't understand this idea of faith that people keep bringing up. I truly don't understand how it works in your head. Most people will look at other people's faith and fully acknowledge its implausibility. People don't have faith because they examined the faith-worthiness of ideas. I don't understand the difference between faith and simply answering a question with "just because". Is it a matter of feelings? Is it just an idea that triggers too strong an emotional response to ignore? Can you describe your faith logically enough so that people who do not have it can understand?

 

[spycam1]

Because my mom and dad said I should

Seriously though, I just have this gut feeling that there is some inherent intricacy and mysticism with this world we live in, and I fully believe that this is a result of this world having a creator, or "God" if you will. Is this God exactly as represented by the Muslim faith? Or Mormon faith? Or Shintoism? The heck if I know. I just have had a lot of my personality impacted for the better as a result of my closeness to my faith, and I feel no reason to stop at any point. I do understand your point though.


EDIT: To properly answer your post, I don't think people ever try to look at something like faith in a very logical, deductive manner. To me, I feel that if a given faith seems to contribute a lot of comfortably, happiness, sureness, and/or hope in a person's life, then they'll pledge their allegiance to it.

The heart of the problem.

 

[The Black Swordsman]

Siromar you are a special chosen someone who broke this cycle of irrational belief. You are one of the few people smart enough to have such smartness to avoid the irrationalness that is false belief.

Here are some of the reasons why I think people believe. I won't go into my specific religion this time (miracle nature of Qur'an etc).

1) Humans are the only animals (as far as we know) that know that their time on this earth is limited and having a belief that this isn't it is comforting.

2)The chance that me and you is alive, this universe exists and continues to exist is so small that any other belief is small in comparison. Your sperm was chosen one in millions and egg one in thousands. Same can be said about each of your parents, grandparents, and other ancestors. If the dark energy constant was less by 1 part in 10^120 (more then the amount of atoms in this entire universe) then this universe wouldnt exist. Atheists claim to be skeptics but they aren't skeptical of these amazingly small chances.

3) An actual infinity does not exist anywhere in the universe including time. An infinite regress of events is not possible and at some people someone must have created something. In doing so they must have chosen to create it which indicates a will which indicates a personal god. When the Big Bang theory was first introduced there was an Atheist philosopher (I forgot his name) that denied it because he thought that accepting it would mean that there is a creator. In 1959 top scientists were surveyed if they thought the universe was eternal. 2/3 of them thought the universe was eternal. It was stated "the universe is eternal, it is a brute fact, there is no need for a god." Now a days atheists say "oops, it wasn't eternal, there is still no need for a god!"

4) Why is there something rather then nothing. The question everyone wants to know, atheists have no answer to it rather then "it just is, thats how it turned out"

5) This is one that C.S. Lewis pushed but I am not that big into: There seems to be universal idea of morality. Many atheists will even claim that killing and raping innocent babies is objectively bad and not just subjectively bad. If absolute morality can be proven then God is more likely.

6) This is the most powerful one for a lot of people like it or not. Pascal's wager.

I am too rational and skeptical to be an atheist or not believe in some sort of divine.

 

[spycam1]

Those are good responses, but I don't feel they answer the question. Faith was brought up several times. But I still don't understand why that's something at all. I don't mean the kind of faith that have you sleep at night knowing your family won't kill you in your sleep, but the type that makes you believe in something that is clearly false. And I mean false in the way humans judge truth from falsehood, which is through applied logic based on physical experience. Everyone got that, or otherwise you wouldn't be here. You know that needles hurt because they hurt every time you got an injection. If I am to tell you the needle I use does not cause pain, you'd ask for either an explanation or a demonstration. If I told you "it's a secret that you have to take on faith", you'd laugh in my face.

So I don't understand this idea of faith that people keep bringing up. I truly don't understand how it works in your head. Most people will look at other people's faith and fully acknowledge its implausibility. People don't have faith because they examined the faith-worthiness of ideas. I don't understand the difference between faith and simply answering a question with "just because". Is it a matter of feelings? Is it just an idea that triggers too strong an emotional response to ignore? Can you describe your faith logically enough so that people who do not have it can understand?

As for my own faith, I would say I have received confirmation concerning its truthfulness via an outside spiritual force.

 

[Stoked]

Humanities ability to believe in something (any thing worthy) is one of mankinds greatest strengths in my opinion.

Beliefe in God, in Humanity..in something.

 

[Siro]

TBS, that seemed like a post I'd love to respond to. But since I don't read anything you post, I guess we'll never know.

Spycam1, what do you mean you received outside confirmation?

 

[Siro]

Humanities ability to believe in something (any thing worthy) is one of mankinds greatest strengths in my opinion.

Beliefe in God, in Humanity..in something.

Like I said, this is shying away from the question. If you ask me "why are you tall" I certainly would not respond with "because wouldn't the world suck if everyone was short?"

I asked why believe in something that seems very unlikely without asking or expecting evidence.

 

[Stoked]

Like I said, this is shying away from the question. If you ask me "why are you tall" I certainly would not respond with "because wouldn't the world suck if everyone was short?"

I asked why believe in something that seems very unlikely without asking or expecting evidence.

For me personally it helps me to become a better person. To have a set of morals or expectations to live up to.

 

[The Black Swordsman]

It's ok SiroMar I understand you would fail to have a good response to my comment judging from my superiority in intellect.

 

[Siro]

For me personally it helps me to become a better person. To have a set of morals or expectations to live up to.

That only makes sense if you already believe. Why those sets of morals? How do you know these are the best way to go if you haven't examined the foundation they're built upon? These answers don't get me closer because they are responses people come up with to JUSTIFY their belief. Meaning, they have to be believers to begin with. I, as an unbeliever, cannot just wake up and go "you know, from now on, I'm Sikh. It'll probably help me be a better person". I would have to buy their story before I accept the correctness of their morals.