Emotional response to a specific event seems to play a contributing role in escaping the delusion that a supernatural entity like god exists. The weight of evidence, logic and reasoned argument places a lot of stress on an intelligent person who is deluded by faith, but like air pressure in a balloon the force of that contrary information is spread out across the internal surface area of that faith balloon and the believer maintains their faith. In my case and a large number of others a single event, often of a cruel injustice to one's self or another, provides the piercing pressure at one point inside that bubble. The person doesn't necessarily realize that god doesn't exist, but they become open to rationally considering evidence that they've denied to themselves previously.
My tipping point was the dire fate of a species called Thrinaxadon that endured the Permian Extinction 250 million years ago. It was sufficiently outside of the imagined "fallen world due to sin" concept so the horror of that species' experience was not easily explained by the dogma of the Christian faith.
What are your thoughts about the role of emotional response along with evidence and reason to escaping the god delusion? Have you seen it and/or experienced it? Do you think I am right that all the force of evidence and reason does best with a leverage point to apply all of that pressure to escape the delusion of faith?
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TL / DR
@Truett
Another insightful comprehensive post by you.
The subject is interesting but a proper reply would actually require a thesis on a doctorate level.
The short answer is:
1) Most people are emotionally driven about faith and politics. Logic doesn't actually enter into it.
a) Take politics. People scrutinize, demonize opposing political figures on nothing more than a rumor or even worse a made up story. They watch Youtube videos that are highly suspicious and completely false and think it is a fact.
b) This is also the case with religion or faith. The exception with faith is that there is an added component of centuries of indoctrination and an instituted culturalization.
2). REAL facts that have come by honestly rarely if ever support people's motivation or beliefs so they ignore them.
3) Logic and truth are hard things to achieve, maintain, and come by. People are basically lazy and won't bother to do the hard thing. Kennedy said "e choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things,[7] not because they are easy, but because they are hard; because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone,..." The speech illustrates that people that strive for truth and honesty must DO THE HARD THING.
Those are great points, Mykcob4. Our core beliefs are awfully hard to dislodge. My emotion-based hypothesis reminds me of what the vicious Joseph Stalin once said: "A single death is a tragedy, a million deaths is a statistic." We seem more responsive to the tragedy than to the statistic, though from a rational stand point it ought to be the other way around.
PS: I'll have to learn to be brief. I am poorly suited to twitter-like discussions!
@ Truett
That wasn't such a lengthy post, I don't get why you got a TL;DR for that.
It seems to me that emotions are often what muddles rational thought and most of the time it seems to favor irrational thinking. But not always.
I've never been much of a believer to start with so I have no experience that even comes close to the transformation you have gone through. But as I see it, emotional responses seem to simply follow the confirmation bias of the person in question. Be it god beliefs, flat Earth conspiracy, just common superstition or rational thinking.
Those who reject reality, seem to be more inclined to have emotional responses that push them away from reality. They feel god's love, etc...
Those who reject irrational beliefs, seem to be more inclined to have emotion responses that push them away from such beliefs. They see how the god of the religious scriptuers would be an immature, irrational and psychotic bully.
To me, it seems that when you reached your tipping point, you were not rejecting rational thinking, and so had emotional reactions in that direction. But that's just my reflection. :)
Thanks, Prag. I don't like the thought of emotion playing a role, as emotions are pliable and easily manipulated. I'm trying to reconcile what served as the catalyst within myself and I'm noticing that other people have similar stories to tell. I'd love to discover the secret sauce and share it freely. You might be right; it might be that critical mass was reached and my emotions followed my logical intuitions. I'll keep looking. Thanks again.