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Why You Can’t Help Believing Everything You Read

Why You Can’t Help Believing Everything You Read

What is the mind's default position: are we naturally critical or naturally gullible? As a species do we have a tendency to behave like Agent Mulder from the X-Files who always wanted to believe in mythical monsters and alien abductions? Or are we like his partner Agent Scully who was the critical scientist, generating alternative explanations, trying to understand and evaluate the strange occurrences they encountered rationally?

Do we believe what the TV, the newspapers, blogs even, tell us at first blush or are we naturally critical? Can we ignore the claims of adverts, do we lap up what politicians tell us, do we believe our lover's promises?

It's not just that some people do and some people don't; in fact all our minds are built with the same first instinct, the same first reaction to new information. But what is it: do we believe first or do we first understand, so that belief (or disbelief) comes later?

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Tags: belief, faith, gullible, lies, psychology, reading, skeptical, truth

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Comment by Dallas the Phallus on September 18, 2009 at 8:35am: @Outlaw:

I'm well aware that my belief may be proven wrong, but I choose to keep it anyway. It's not as if a belief in alien life somewhere in the universe makes me a nutter. =P

No, I thought you were a nutter long before you made that comment. :P Teehee!

As for the selfish-gene theory, I believe the way I heard it phrased was "the theory that alturistic actions hide a selfish, genetic motive." An example of this is kin selection.

Yes, I agree with that assessment. I keep repeating this over and over on this site, but I just finished reading The Lucifer Principle, and that is what that book is basically about: Life is nothing more than selfish motives and actions directed towards establishing a pecking order in one's favor.

Comment by OutlawGirl on September 17, 2009 at 7:25pm: @Dallas

I'm well aware that my belief may be proven wrong, but I choose to keep it anyway. It's not as if a belief in alien life somewhere in the universe makes me a nutter. =P

As for the selfish-gene theory, I believe the way I heard it phrased was "the theory that alturistic actions hide a selfish, genetic motive." An example of this is kin selection.

Comment by Sonny Mobley on September 17, 2009 at 5:36pm: The default position is probably gullability. We learn to be critical.

Oh, and the selfish gene isn't selfish in the sense that we are selfish. We perceive genes as selfish, because they act in what we perceive as a selfish manner. Genes exist to replicate. Whether or not we benefit from this replication is moot to the gene.

Comment by Dallas the Phallus on September 17, 2009 at 4:51pm: @outlaw

One claim that I've been having a problem with recently is the selfish-gene theory. I do not think that all alturistic behavior disguises a selfish genetic motive. I can think of many instances when a human sacrificed his or her life for someone who was not a family reletive, as well as a few examples from the animal kingdom.

I've not read this book, but I believe what he is saying is that genes are selfish creatures, they want to survive, not that there is a specific gene that causes selfishness. The gene itself is the thing that is selfish, not the presence of the gene that makes us selfish.

I believe that we are not alone in he universe. I have serious doubts that earth was ever visited in the past. I just feel that we are not alone.

I can't really say I believe it, just in the possibility that life exists elsewhere. I can believe that scorpions sting, although one has never stung me. I am much more skeptical about life on other planets, barring more concrete evidence. I don't see what feelings have to do with it though. While feelings are real, concrete sensations for us, they have nothing to do with whether or not life could origninate on other planets.

Comment by OutlawGirl on September 17, 2009 at 4:41pm: Becoming an atheist has actually made me more analytical. Is this an uncommon claim among fairly new atheists?

I honestly believe it, though. I don't think that becoming an atheist has made me more intelligent - that's silly - but it has made me more discerning. While I don't dismiss unevidenced claims out of hand, I do spend more time thinking about new information before I decide whether or not it deserves to be believed. If I heard a claim from a person credible in their field I would be inclined to believe it. Ethos may be proof of credibility in and of itself - but this is not always so.

One claim that I've been having a problem with recently is the selfish-gene theory. I do not think that all alturistic behavior disguises a selfish genetic motive. I can think of many instances when a human sacrificed his or her life for someone who was not a family reletive, as well as a few examples from the animal kingdom. While I suppose that this theory could be true on some level I don't think it applies everywhere.

Then there are the things that I believe in in absense of credibility. I believe that we are not alone in he universe. I have serious doubts that earth was ever visited in the past. I just feel that we are not alone. It does give me some comfort, which is one reason why I choose to believe it, and the other reason is that I do not think we know enough about the universe yet to definitively claim that we are the only intelligent species in the cosmos or that earth is the only habitable planet.