Why people get upset when you challenge their beliefs.

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cognitive_dissonance

8 thoughts on “Why people get upset when you challenge their beliefs.”

  1. Timely topic. I recently posted something on Cognitive Dissonance too. https://kiasherosjourney.wordpress.com/2017/01/30/cognitive-dissonance/ There’s a lot of that going around these days. I was actually called the face of cognitive dissonance by someone on Facebook. I also recommend my post about epistemology, too. https://kiasherosjourney.wordpress.com/2016/04/08/are-you-crazy/ It gets to the heart of philosophy and knowledge. How do we determine what is true? I like the “coherence theory.” In a nutshell, truth is whatever theory or belief system can fit all the data in a coherent or consistent system so that nothing contradicts anything else. For example, suppose an atheist sees an angelic vision in the sky that tells him to believe in God. He must either let go of his atheism or believe he is having a psychotic breakdown. He can’t believe he is sane and that God doesn’t exist. Those two views contradict each other. It’s like that will all beliefs. Anything that conflicts with cherished beliefs is a threat to our very reality. In America today, as we all know, we are so deeply divided that cognitive dissonance is a constant threat. Probably why there are so many fights.

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    • Truth is What Is. Our “view” of truth (misconceptions, impressions or accurate) do not effect that reality.

      For example, if most people in the world believed 2 plus 2 = 9 because otherwise an evil dictator would round them up and kill them, that does not mean 2 plus 2 = 9.

      2+ 2 would still equal 4.

      Explanation of cause is not a justification by reason.

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      • Well put. He is feeding the world lies and making threats against those who call him out on those lies. But that’s what malignant narcissists do, so it isn’t surprising.

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  2. I am so grateful I learned this new word from visiting your blog a few posts back. It doesn’t solve, but at least explains – the seeming inability or refusal of otherwise intelligent human beings to reason or face objective reality.

    Sometimes it feels like we are living in a world filled with people suffering from this phenomena.

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    • When we meditate on the Word of God, His Spirit directs our thinking as we seek earnestly to know Him better. Often, the discipline will include wrestling with spiritual principles, which the Lord uses to build a firm foundation in our life. It may even involve a time of repentance, as He reveals truth and moves us to yearn for a Christ-centered mindset. Or, meditation could lead to healing if God shows us areas of our heart that need His touch. When we take time to set our mind on Him, the Lord will direct our thoughts.

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  4. I believe in treating others how you wish to be treated. I don’t believe any civilized society can exist with everyone running around in anarchy doing their own thing, regardless of how it effects others. I live by the word of God and I never feel threatened when someone has different ideas, I have, however, run out of patience with obvious blind ignorance of many and I do resent the false indoctrination of many by the hands of the selfish unbelievers. I also am disgusted at so many quick to join in abuse of those that don’t share their agenda. They are too stupid/evil to be upset, they are angry and demand your loyalty to their cause or belief, much as Islam is known to do so it’s no wonder many of the lost also prefer a harsh religion over the personal relationship with Jesus, Prince of Peace.

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  5. I remember once doing research on the “charismatic” movement for a critique I was writing.

    I was fascinated to learn that the early Christians held that since revelation was complete, anyone who claimed to speak “new revelation” through the Holy Spirit after the apostles, therefore, must be demonically deluded – or just mentally ill.

    The earliest post Pentecost versions of the charismatic movement were equated with gnosticism, not the true church, or the true followers of Christ.

    Gnostics believed truth could be “infused” directly into their heads from the Divine (only for the select elite of course) and these unprovable “insights” they tried to fuse with Christianity, even if they contradicted Christianity, or each other.

    Cognitive dissonance not?

    Real truth seeking on the other hand, Catholicism/Christianity, is actually religiously equated with science and legitimate psychiatry. Thomas Aquinas was the first to come up with the principle of childhood trauma as trigger – which today is called complex post traumatic stress disorder.

    And as far as “cognitive dissonance” is concerned, the principle that anyone who holds two contradicting “truths” to be “true” at the same time, must be suffering from some sort of disorder or delusion – has been held all throughout history, as far as I can tell.

    Cognitive dissonance apparently is, and always has been, one of the hallmark traits of mental illness. What frightens me is that it necessarily follows that much of the world then is disordered, and they don’t even have the insight to realize it.

    What shall we call it, Tower of Babel, or mass anosognosia?

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