I started this blog 5 years ago. I no longer post often as my primary intent was to share my faith journey that accelerated when my oldest son declared he was an atheist. I’m grateful for a medium like this that allowed me to often use pictures as part of my expression. I’m a visual person.
I realize even better now that I’m an emotional thinker too (as are all). I recently received the following video to watch. After viewing, I truly wish it a bigger audience. It’s well done and it contains a lot of poignant and compelling content about how we as humans are primarily emotional and intuitive thinkers. We want to believe we are primarily logical and rational thinkers, but we aren’t! The field of cognitive science largely exists because we aren’t.
I’ll post the video below but one last point before I do. One of the most compelling posts on my blog features the letter of Dennis Augustine, which he wrote to a member of The Clergy Project. That post will be 5 years old in a few months, but it touches on the same theme as the video below. I had titled that post Reaching Others Through their Hearts. Please check it out if you have the time.
Here’s the video.
Thanks for sharing this, Logan. The subject of belief, as influenced by intuitive vs. analytical thinking, came to the forefront while writing my book, (Holy Deception?: A Recovering Fundamentalist Explores the Bible). I have always been very analytical and for that reason I could never accept the parts of the Judeo-Christian Bible that were seemingly at odds with what my logical mind understood regarding scientific and historical fact. Try as I might, I found it impossible to fully embrace my faith even though I considered myself to be a sincere believer. I became very conflicted over time as I was unable to simply dismiss truth in favor of “just believing” fanciful Bible stories. The cognitive dissonance associated with this psychological dynamic brought pain and suffering in the form of depression and guilt.
Late in life I came to a place where I was compelled to make an all or nothing choice. I decided to research the Bible from cover to cover in an unbiased and analytical manner. It took 18 months of rigorous research and soul searching to finish my task.
Although I came to an understanding that the Bible was basically an archaic fictional narrative, I quickly found that my unimpeachable conclusions (LOL!), meant nothing to most believers. It became apparent that belief trump’s truth when it comes to religion and faith. The video you have posted here sheds light on why that is so. My book contains a chapter on belief which I had not originally intended to address. However, after it became apparent that readers needed to understand what drives belief in order to view the book in a proper context, I researched belief and placed the chapter at the very front of the book. I included an interesting article on intuitive vs. analytical thinking (“How Critical Thinkers Lose Faith in God”) that came from a 2012 issue of Scientific American. A very interesting read.
Lastly, here are a couple of pertinent quotes:
“Question with boldness even the existence of a god; because, if there be one, he must more approve the homage of reason, than that of blindfolded fear.” Thomas Jefferson
“For those who believe in God, no explanation is necessary. For those who do not believe, no explanation is sufficient.” From “The Song of Bernadette”
Thanks for indulging me.