Sociopath Community

I appreciate the amount of depth you put in your response.

Why would you say some do not need these 'false hopes'? Is it mental strength/resilience, or something a lot less simple? Narcissism, maybe, that they're important enough to be cared for after death, or that they were more than their material possessions? Or a lack of depth/intelligence of the mind?

Humans formulate ideas and beliefs to make sense of the world around them. Very long ago, humans seldom tended to use formal systems of reasoning to understand phenomena. Instead, they explained things in terms of supernatural beliefs—Poseidon moved the tides; Zeus shot lightning from the sky.

Then in the West came along the pre-Socratic philosophers, who attempted to conceptualize phenomena without reference to the supernatural. Gradually, philosophy advanced, and in time the scientific method developed. Similar processes were going on outside of the West, but as I don't know much about them I use the Western development in logic as my point of reference. But despite humans having developed very advanced systems of reasoning and making many discoveries from them, mythology persists, as does poor reasoning.

One of the most basic principles of human behavior is that humans seek pleasure and avoid pain. The fact that people operate in such a manner influences what they choose to believe in.

There was a girl in my 11th grade economics class who sincerely believed that the Devil put dinosaur fossils into the ground and created carbon-14 to fool humans into believing in evolution. Now in this day and age of scientific enlightenment, how can anyone earnestly believe something so ridiculous? Well the answer is simple, really. Without those beliefs she would have to accept the validity of scientific discoveries, and that would lead her to conflict and questioning with her faith. But her faith convinces her that the world is truly a good place, that there is a benevolent God orchestrating this universe, and that when she dies she goes on to be something more than insect food. Her need to believe in those things erects a mental block which prevents her from entertaining possibilities that could take those comforts away from her. Her beliefs help her live pleasurably and avoid pain.

These "mental blocks" that I mentioned are ubiquitous. Think of the wife presented time and time again with evidence of her partner's infidelity, but refuses to give any of it credence because it would spoil the image of a happy marriage she clings onto. Think of the child who has been told by his classmate that Santa isn't real, but ignores his classmate because he cherishes Christmas and the idea of Santa. The fact is that people will often selectively believe the things which will make them feel better at the expense of other possibilities.

As a personal note, I do not myself often feel frustrated or compelled to break down these mental blocks when I see them in others. Many times they help those people cope with reality. I believe that people should live happily, and so I don't believe it does any good to take away from people those things which comfort them.

I don't think I've met a purely close-minded person in my entire life. And I doubt every stubborn person is close-minded, either. 

I think all people need a clear explanation that refutes their ideals. You can't just storm in and claim "fallacy!" without the decisive proof. They're not going to buy that.

But inflexibility depends on the subject that interests them.

Fear of change.

Fear of not having a solid foundation.

Fear of being wrong... one more time.

Fear of having ideas that will upset other people.

I appreciate the amount of depth you put in your response.

Why would you say some do not need these 'false hopes'? Is it mental strength/resilience, or something a lot less simple? Narcissism, maybe, that they're important enough to be cared for after death, or that they were more than their material possessions? Or a lack of depth/intelligence of the mind?

Proof is irrelevant, I'm talking about the people who have been given plenty of proof yet still refuse to even consider the other side without getting overly emotional and caving in and having a cry.

Ohh, how I wish it was that simple.

Well I think that people of a certain intelligence are simply unable to buy into false hopes, because they would be acutely aware of doing just that. Although there are some Christian theoretical physicists out there...that shows that belief systems can become very complex. Those physicists may not be seeking false hope as much as betting that the universe's intricate and fine-tuned complexity could not possibly be the result of "chance." And that's a topic that is at least debatable, as opposed to something like "the human body functions so well, how could that have happened on its own?"

I think mental strength as you mentioned is probably also an important factor. People have varying degrees of psychological fortitude, and some have the strength to not "snap" under the weight of the human existential condition.

Without trying to brag, I think I've had both the intelligence and mental fortitude to not buy into false hopes. And I will admit that at first the absence of those hopes was not a good thing for me...I became nihilistic (this caused me to drop out of college), and in more recent times became hypochondriac and feared death. I'm overcoming those fears now though. Just as there is philosophy that tries to coddle us, there are also philosophies which help us deal with the brutal aspects of reality, and I've been looking into those as well as emotionally handling the aspect of mortality.

"But the question still stands. Why do people hear one thing, trust it, and refute anything else that comes their way?"

It's because that "one thing" makes more sense to them than the counter-example. If you want to convince someone of something, you have to do it in their own mental language, wording it how they think so that it'll sink in in a way that translates more readily.

No one wants to be wrong, but they also don't necessarily mind learning a new way of thinking. It's a matter of baby steps instead of attacking.