By OPHELIA BENSON - GUARDIAN.CO.UK HOME LOCATION
Added: Sat, 07 Aug 2010 02:09:48 UTC

Thanks to Miranda for the link
Original link
Belief isn't a wormhole to knowledge about God – it's a cognitive function that should be flexible and open to correction

The question: Can we choose what we believe?

The answer to this question has to be: yes, of course we can, and the idea that we can't is a recipe for credulity and passivity and helplessness before authority.

The important issue isn't how we acquire a belief so much as how we test it, question it, evaluate it. Belief isn't a straight yes or no thing, or at least it shouldn't be. Once we're past childhood (and assuming we've had a decent education), we should know better than to believe whatever we're told.

We're offered potential beliefs all the time, in news reports and advertising and conversation. We don't accept them all; we reject some, we doubt others, and even those we accept we may be prepared to change or reject if we learn more. We know perfectly well – or if we don't, we should – that it's not sensible to believe everything that turns up.

The one major exception to this rule, of course, is religious belief. But the fact that it is an exception is a mix of tradition and social pressure, which means it's extraneous to judgment of the actual quality of the beliefs. There is a strong taboo on evaluating religious beliefs in the same way one would evaluate a news report or an argument or a box of quantum crystal detox foot powder.

Most religious believers are born into and brought up in their religion. Their religious beliefs are handed down by authoritative adults, and asking questions about the beliefs is often discouraged or just plain forbidden. The special arrangement religion has, whereby it's considered wrong to apply normal scepticism to religious beliefs, means that many people simply hang on to the beliefs implanted in childhood (while many more have various levels of doubt but don't say so because of the taboo).

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TAGGED: CRITICAL THINKING, RELIGION