Why Smart People Believe Stupid Things
Call me an egotistical bastard, but I've always had a reasonably high opinion of my own intelligence. I have also tended to believe that certain (quite common) beliefs are so obviously logically wrong that a child can often tell.
As an example, many people believe in a "perfect", all-powerful God that doesn't want us to suffer. The problem with this is that by any remotely normal set of definitions, a perfect being that didn't want us to suffer would immediately and permanently remove all suffering from existence.
Having said that, I am not sufficiently conceited to make claims like "Nobody who believes that is smarter than me." Obviously, I have been wrong about important things, and so has everybody else. This leaves anyone remotely humble with an obvious question: How can someone who is generally intelligent believe things that seem obviously stupid?
At first, it may be tempting to write it off to a lack of knowledge about the situation. But if it was that simple, a simple conversation between two intelligent people of conflicting beliefs would result in the two of them leaving with the same beliefs. So, there must be something else.
The answer hit me when religious people started getting inordinately offended by simple logical discussion. If you haven't happened to notice, people are very emotionally attached to their beliefs. This is somewhat understandable; when you put someone in the situation of choosing between "still on track for eternal bliss" or "the last 7 years of my life have been wasted worshipping a fantasy", it is easy to see why there might be emotional attachment. The corresponding problem, however, is that people allow their emotions to take over, and refuse to allow their brains at the problem.
I suspect this effect happens to people of all belief systems to some degree, but I also suspect that atheists and agnostics experience it less due to the lack of a strong reward in their beliefs.
As an example, many people believe in a "perfect", all-powerful God that doesn't want us to suffer. The problem with this is that by any remotely normal set of definitions, a perfect being that didn't want us to suffer would immediately and permanently remove all suffering from existence.
Having said that, I am not sufficiently conceited to make claims like "Nobody who believes that is smarter than me." Obviously, I have been wrong about important things, and so has everybody else. This leaves anyone remotely humble with an obvious question: How can someone who is generally intelligent believe things that seem obviously stupid?
At first, it may be tempting to write it off to a lack of knowledge about the situation. But if it was that simple, a simple conversation between two intelligent people of conflicting beliefs would result in the two of them leaving with the same beliefs. So, there must be something else.
The answer hit me when religious people started getting inordinately offended by simple logical discussion. If you haven't happened to notice, people are very emotionally attached to their beliefs. This is somewhat understandable; when you put someone in the situation of choosing between "still on track for eternal bliss" or "the last 7 years of my life have been wasted worshipping a fantasy", it is easy to see why there might be emotional attachment. The corresponding problem, however, is that people allow their emotions to take over, and refuse to allow their brains at the problem.
I suspect this effect happens to people of all belief systems to some degree, but I also suspect that atheists and agnostics experience it less due to the lack of a strong reward in their beliefs.
posted by Gideon Humphrey at 5:30 PM
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