Why the obsession with everybody having correct/accurate cognitions?

[LOVEthroughINTELLECT]

Well, having emotional or intuitive issues with a belief, yet still believing in for intellectual reasons, sounds like a person who may have been a believer in say; creation, but now has seen enough objective evidence of evolution and simply can not deny it any longer, even though it goes against an "emotional" belief they have held onto for a long time. I would think this is healthy, because the person is recognizing what is true and what isn't true and they are accepting it, even though it may be emotionally troubling. Sort of like when one of your kids is accused of doing something bad and as a parent, you don't want to believe that it is true, but evidence shows that your child did indeed to the bad thing and it can't be denied.

Daniel Dennent has a name for folks who believe in something just for the sake of thinking believing is the most comfortable thing to do. He calls it; a belief in believing and he claims a lot of folks who claim to be religious actually have serious doubts, but believing is the more comfortable choice for them.

But that is not what we are talking about here. And it is not what I said.

I said that because intellectually he/she does not yet have a reason to reject the belief it is possible for a person to have doubts about a belief (and the topic here is incorrect/inaccurate cognitions such as the Earth's moon being made of marshmallow cream) but continue having that belief. I doubt that many people reject beliefs for the sake of rejecting beliefs. They reject beliefs when they have reason to, such as having it pointed out to them that due to its proximity to the sun's heat the Earth's moon would have evaporated by now if it was made of marshmallow cream. If a point has not been made to him/her or occurred to him/her then a person does not yet have reason to reject the belief, never mind how he/she feels emotionally or what he/she senses intuitively about it.

The process is probably not going to work that way with everybody. But it was asked how one particular way is possible, not how every single person's intellectual development works.

 

[bhsmte]

But that is not what we are talking about here. And it is not what I said.

I said that because intellectually he/she does not yet have a reason to reject the belief it is possible for a person to have doubts about a belief (and the topic here is incorrect/inaccurate cognitions such as the Earth's moon being made of marshmallow cream) but continue having that belief. I doubt that many people reject beliefs for the sake of rejecting beliefs. They reject beliefs when they have reason to, such as having it pointed out to them that due to its proximity to the sun's heat the Earth's moon would have evaporated by now if it was made of marshmallow cream. If a point has not been made to him/her or occurred to him/her then a person does not yet have reason to reject the belief, never mind how he/she feels emotionally or what he/she senses intuitively about it.

The process is probably not going to work that way with everybody. But it was asked how one particular way is possible, not how every single person's intellectual development works.

"One could emotionally and or intuitively have doubts but intellectually have no reason to reject the belief."

This is the quote that I was basing my post on. When you state, someone could have emotional doubts, but have no "intellectual" reason to reject a belief, that tells me the intellectual piece has to do with recognizing reality and or objective evidence, that may not coincide with their emotional or intuitive side.

 

[LOVEthroughINTELLECT]

"One could emotionally and or intuitively have doubts but intellectually have no reason to reject the belief."

This is the quote that I was basing my post on. When you state, someone could have emotional doubts, but have no "intellectual" reason to reject a belief, that tells me the intellectual piece has to do with recognizing reality and or objective evidence, that may not coincide with their emotional or intuitive side.

For as far back as I can remember I have had the belief that it is part of the nature of men for them to eat red meat and against the nature of women to do so. Notice that I said that I have had a belief. I did not say that I agree with it. I did not say that I think that it is correct. I did not say that I like it. I simply said that my mind has contained a belief.

I do not know where that belief came from. It was formed out of messages that I subconsciously internalized when I was a child, apparently. Nonetheless it is there. Good or bad, for better or for worse, like it or not, I have that belief. That is a fact about part of my intellectual state.

On the other hand, for a long time I have intuitively sensed that that belief is silly. Other times, I sense that it worse than silly--that it is a sexist stereotype that hurts men and oppresses women.

But I have never had a reason to reject the belief. I have never had any evidence, any argument, etc. that would allow me to discard that belief. Therefore, I continue to carry around--and be bothered by--that belief.

If you have a card in your hand that you want to discard but you are not convinced that you will not need it later, you don't blithely discard it. Similarly, if you have a belief in your mind and you have no rational reason to reject it, you keep it in your mind. That does not mean that you think about it. It does not mean that you act according to it. It means that you consciously or subconsciously do one or more of the things that people do when they have thoughts that they are not prepared to deal with. It could mean burying it in your subconscious and trying to forget about it. It could mean dedicating your life to finding the truth about it and then sharing the results with others in the form of a book. Or something in between.

Therefore, if, say, I was at a restaurant on a date with a woman and she ordered steak I would be intrigued. Women don't do that, I am supposed to be believe. Or maybe I would catch myself thinking that she is acting like a man.

If I was to finally come across a good reason--maybe anthropological evidence that women have always consumed red meat, or something like that--then not only would I reject that aforementioned belief, I would say good riddance.

It is not about allowing or failing to allow reason to trump one's desires, emotions, etc. It is about coping with the beliefs that, for whatever reason, one's mind is a host to.