Re:On irrational religious beliefs

Thanks very much for the comments !

Defining irrationality simply as holding mutually inconsistent beliefs, it is a useful goal but probably nearly impossible to be "rational" in any absolute sense.

The interesting question is whether we are *systematically* irrational, and whether systematic irrationality serves a useful purpose (and whether it sometimes serves us better than the goal of rationality !).

The minimum requirement for reason is consistency, yet we all know about "foolish consistency" leading us into useless endeavor. We also have reasonable evidence that shared beliefs, even ones that seem strange to non-believers, appear to serve a unifying function. People recognize each other and guide their interactions in ways that align with their shared beliefs.

One of the most distinctive things about couples that are still together after many decades is that they seem to see their lives in terms of the same story, whereas couples who are in the process of separating seem to retell the history of their relationship in terms of completely different stories. I don't think this is a coincidence or that they separate simply because they are suddenly changing their stories. I think their beliefs about each other and their relationship and their role in a larger community are a key factor in their union.

If the sharing of beliefs serves a unifying role, then it makes sense that it should at least sometimes be more adaptive to share irrational beliefs than purely evidentially consistent ones. There should be things more important to the human psyche than seeing their physical environment in a clear empirical way ...

... for most of our history, it was probably more important that we *understood* each other's intentions than that we saw the fine details of world around us accurately.

Our requirements and perspective have shifted slightly in recent history, making us aware of our "systematic irrationality," yet it is still no doubt an important part of us as well.

kind regards,

Todd

Replies:

Re:On irrational religious beliefs, by Da Friendly Puter Tech, 12/17/02

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