Logic's Answer To Religion: How We Get Taken In

By John James Drake

One of our least effective traits involves the capacity to deny reality. This allows us to be repetitively duped by circumstances or by the unscrupulous. Prayer fits the phenomenon because so many people believe in it without being able to demonstrate the slightest effectiveness. Has anyone ever done or even considered a statistical analysis of its success or failure rate, or heard of such a study? Of course not. This would be an affront to the faithful. In the event that providence has been favorable they claim their prayers have worked. Or perhaps they say it was a miracle, which would be God changing his mind about his grand plan. When an event remains negative, they say nothing, but none-the-less continue to believe in the fantasy.

A miracle is a positive event for which we may not be able to derive a reason, but that does not mean that the event does not have a simple explanation if we were able to understand all of the circumstances.

• Language: English
• Publisher: John James Drake
• Release date: Sep 8, 2012
• ISBN: 9781301192878

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Logic’s Answer To Religion

How We Voluntarily Get Taken In

© Copyright John James Drake 2012-14

This book is protected under the Copyright laws of the United States of America. It may not be transmitted in any form without the expressed permission of the author.

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Chapter Common Sense

Deceiving Ourselves

One of our least productive traits involves the capacity to deny reality. This allows us to be repetitively duped by circumstances, those with good intentions, or by the unscrupulous who prey on us for their own benefit. The institution of prayer fits well into this phenomenon because there are so many people believe in it without being able to demonstrate the slightest effectiveness. Has anyone ever done or even considered a statistical analysis of its success or failure rate, or heard of such a study? Of course not. This would be an affront to the faithful. In the event that providence has been favorable they claim their prayers have worked. Or perhaps they identify it as a miracle, which would be God changing his mind about his grand plan. When an event remains negative, they remain mute, but none-the-less continue to believe in the fantasy.

A miracle is an event for which we may not be able to derive a reason, but that does not mean that the event does not have a straightforward explanation if we were only able to identify and understand the circumstances.

In an experiment showing how easily people are able to fit dubious explanations into their beliefs, test subjects were shown two pictures of different faces and asked to identify the more attractive image. After choosing one, the experimenter turned the photos face down. Then through slight of hand he switched the images and presented each subject with only the picture that was not chosen and asked them to explain the reasons for their preferences. Many went on to construct justifications for what they believed was their choice. The urge for people to accept what they falsely believed what was their choice had supplanted the memory of their actual selections. This reality flexibility is also what makes eye witness testimony to the police or courts so unreliable.

Hook Line & Sinker

Some time back a good friend professed his belief in how gifted a Native American woman fortune teller was. She could, so he said, tell him intimate things about himself that should not have been knowable to a stranger. This event reminded me of a show put on at the Magic Castle in LA. An entertainer told me personal things about myself after I had a brief conversation with his aide, but before the two had any obvious chance to speak to each other. While the information that was related about me was relatively accurate, it had nothing to do with any supernatural talent and perhaps everything to do with…

...there are many truths about all of us (most likely)

...maybe I heard what I wanted to hear (possibly)

...a code was passed between the aide and the performer (maybe)

I was amused, but not surprised. However there are people with a genetic disposition toward the easy acceptance of supernatural explanations because it satisfies their temperament. It is a part of human nature to look for answers when we are confronted with the unknown, and more than a few of us possess really superior skills in that direction. But common sense does not always go hand and hand with this innate behavior. Our society doesn’t seem to learn a lesson from being repetitively duped by those who are anxious to engage in that sort of fun-for-profit. An example of this would be the ghost stories programs in TV. They manufacture evidence that fits into their agenda, and there seems to be a willing audience for this contrived proof. That fantasy creation goes hand and hand with the various hotels around the world that claim to be haunted by someone who died there.

I am a little non-plused when I hear someone express their belief in the mystical vortices that are claimed to be located around the Sedona AZ airport and elsewhere. They are comfortable with these stories even though there is no evidence to support them. The anecdotal testimonies that abound are the result of people’s easy beliefs, or perhaps they are deliberate deceit on the part of those who would make a buck off of the idea.

Common sense can be in such short supply that people will occasionally take classes to gain a bit of this skill. Classes like est in the 70’s may have been in vogue for the moment, or they may have been deemed to be interesting by those who attended, or they may have actually served a learning purpose. While I did not attend, I had friends who did. I recall thinking that some of this education could be beneficial, such as: be here now and: ride the horse in the direction it is going. Others may have gotten the questionable message that: making mistakes was beneficial because it leads to a positive learning process. Well maybe it does at times… just don’t count on a high frequency of this.

Attention to Dress

One of our evolutionary traits is to deceive, and curiously, another is to be deceived. While this may seem slightly illogical, there must have been sufficient justification for both of those traits to evolve into instincts. One of these dispositions, to be deceived, can revolve around