Some people believe things that aren't true, no matter what new information is provided.
But why?
As scary as this is, it begs an important point. You really have to know why you believe what you believe — in other words, what has affected what you believe?
The content of our beliefs is one thing (and important, to be sure). But, how you've reached your conclusions about that content is equally impacting because it is too easily observable that many people believe things that are simply not true. Why would that even be?
Well, there are actually more things going on related to what we believe than we tend to think. For one thing, what we believe is highly influenced by how we believe. For example, a certain percentage of people believe something simply because it is repeated so often that they conclude it must be true. Whether in social dynamics, politics, or even religion, repetition is a powerful influence.
But, repetition, in and of itself, isn't what makes something true, is it?
So, you really have to ask why do we believe something? How does it happen? What things (often cultural and psychological) affect what we believe?
How you grew up, things that happen in your family, things that hurt you, things that helped you, and probably most significantly your social context are all among the many things that influence that powerful combination of what you think and what you feel — your beliefs.
Have you ever noticed that you wish you could still believe something that you no longer do? What is going on there? Believing is a function of something. And, without recognizing what that is — what those things are, we proceed with a certain kind of chosen blindness...sometimes to our peril.
Belief is often moored to some perception of truth. But, in reality, it may have less to do with a particular truth than we tend to think. This is why we often still believe something in spite of evidence to the contrary. In other words, we believe it anyway. But often without any really defendable reason; because what we believe is often not really based that much on reason. It is based on other needs we have as human-beings (many that we are often unaware of), like the way we want (or don’t want) to feel.
I have come to believe in my life that people, more than they fear death, they fear not belonging.
-- Adam Kinzinger
We laugh now, but many people used to believe the earth was flat. And, that it was the center of the universe. And, that...well, the list goes on and on. Silly? The point is, one needs to know how that could happen? And, if it could then, what are some of the same dynamics that are involved in what we believe today?
This is often why people seem afraid to question their beliefs, isn't it? That we would cease to believe altogether? But, often what really happens is that our beliefs evolve, as a function of our experience, as they should (see Nicodemus).
We really should know why...we believe what we believe.
