Pacey says:
I’m beginning to think that stupid people are indeed rational, but what they do is deceive themselves by asking themselves questions so that they can arrive at the answers they want rationally. It is a way of framing the discussion.
For instance, when it comes to belief in deities, a believer will not ask themselves critically what is the best evidence. Moreover, they will ask themselves questions that will land them into a cognitive loophole where there the existence can be rationally believed. Such people may throw the onus onto others to come up with a non-deity universe and play gotcha with any gaps in the presented theory, falsely believing that the deity-filled universe is a default condition. Others will invoke Pascal’s Wager, a risk aversion method contingent on the possibility of a vengeful deity actually existing. Many point to the popular belief in deities as evidence they are onto something, or that belief in deities is persistent over time as a good reason to believe. The commonalities between these is that they stop asking questions once they’ve rationally reached the answer they wanted to get to all along, in this case that their favourite deity exists, but then resist to rationally analyze and criticize their conclusions.
Using reason to support poor decisions is quite pervasive among intelligent people. People who are depressed will explain their depression as a result of a series of equations that all rationally support, say, personal failure, and ignore or discount all personal triumphs because they would rationally detract from the conclusion of the depressed mind.
Commonly, global warming proponents will employ the highest levels of reason, not to criticize, examine, and strengthen their own position, but to weaken vigorous skeptics. Too often, environmentalists will use the very logical fallacies and exploit the same deceptive rhetorical devices that they would reflexively point out in their opponents. In many cases, environmentalists closely resemble rational theists in the argumentative tactics.
One of the most perplexing, yet common, situations where intelligent people deceive themselves is use of their credit card. Sadly, these practices are well known to creditors who allow and encourage their customers to lead themselves to financial destruction. Most people understand how interest works, and that debts accelerate rapidly, and they do so coolly and rationally. However, at the point of purchase, these same rational thinking people will employ self-deceptive techniques to rationalize frivolous spending (“…but, I deserve this”, “so what? I’m already in debt”, “I’ll make up the difference later”, “the kids are worth it”, “the Jones’ need to know that I can do it too”). In fact, many financial planners and accountants (who calculate debits and credits professionally) cannot apply what they do to escape their own financial ruin. Creditors love to know that their customers are fooling themselves (albeit rationally, and often with the best of intentions) into forking over lifetimes of cash, but it is so sad, really. Rarely is the debt actually worth the reward.
In posting this, I asked myself “was this the best way I could make my point in this blog?” So, I looked in the mirror, asked, and the mirror responded “Yes, yes it is, and you look fabulous”. I then rationally deduced that I had satisfied all criteria in posting.
*click*
