How the human mind processes facts and faith differently

by EdenOne 59 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  Vidiot

  "...We seem to regard religious beliefs and factual beliefs with... different 'cognitive attitudes'."

  Goes a long way towards explaining why the WT leadership can know it's wrong (as many of us suspect), while believing it's True at the same time.

  Many of us were able to do that to some degree when we were still in, but it seems only full-on authoritarian leaders can compartmentalize the disparity enough to bypass the cognitive dissonance created by it, which - for the rest of us - becomes too strong to ignore...

  ...I.e., authoritarian leaders don't experience cog-dis like the rest of us, and the ones best able to compartmentalize - for all intents and purposes - don't experience it at all.
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  Xanthippe

  Comments?
  Personally, I would like to see an experiment that scans the brain while the person is making a factual statement: 'I believe my dog is alive'; if there's a difference in brain activity or area of the brain activated when saying: "I believe Jesus is alive".

  Apparently when someone is hearing voices either through mental illness or it can be because of a fault with their ears, the auditory part of the brain lights up during a brain scan showing that their brain is reacting as though they are actually hearing, but they're not. So what would your experiment prove?
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  EdenOne

  It would be interesting to see if faith claims are processed by the brain in the exact same manner that statements of fact. Only by analyzing results from that experiment one could come up with a theory.

  Eden
• 

  nicolaou

  More avoidance EdenOne? Answer me plainly, did Jesus walk on water?
• 

  Oubliette

  cofty: I have found the opposite to be true in my case.

  Agreed.

  What evidence is there for the statement "people’s reliance on supernatural explanations increases as they age"?

  Or do we simply need to take it on faith?
  
• 

  Xanthippe

  We need to have both statements repeated by EdenOne during a brain scan and whichever one lights up the brightest is the truth.
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  EdenOne

  nicolaou: More avoidance EdenOne? Answer me plainly, did Jesus walk on water?

  Based on what I know on the properties of water and technology available in the 1st century, I can say with a great degree of confidence that such feat never took place, therefore the account, as it exists now, is legendary.

  Happy now, Nic?

  Eden
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  nicolaou

  Yes. Shame it needed dragging out of you but this is the thing isn't it? Obfuscation and sophistry are such unneccesary and tiring pursuits.

  Just be straightforward.
  
• 

  EdenOne

  Oubliette: Or do we simply need to take it on faith?

  Here's your empirical evidence. Just because some people don't experience this themselves, that doesn't become the norm.

  Eden
• 

  EdenOne

  Nicolaou: Obfuscation and sophistry are such unneccesary and tiring pursuits.

  Why are you accusing me of such things? Because I just don't take things at face value? Because I want to understand what's behind the process of belief? If you were a social scientist, you would be very interested in raising these questions.

  Eden