In Reason We Trust

For many of us in the rationalist and humanist community, the focus on how we define ourselves often falls on the difference between developing and upholding the rational mind versus religious tendencies towards bias or inference. This does not mean freethinkers are not impacted by our own biases and inferences– we accept them and are aware of them. But what I conclude sets us apart is a drive towards a greater self-awareness, which includes an ongoing search for facts as well as an eagerness to embrace reality rather than to run from it.

Religious belief – and this includes most forms of new age spirituality – often stems from an inability to think rationally or act beyond one’s personal biases. This formative ignorance makes people open to manipulation because they already lack a basis to think without needing to be shown evidence of a proof of a claim.

To be sure, having religious feelings doesn’t make our beliefs feel less real or true. Our brains will process reality no matter what the external or experiential input might be, both in the moment and for the long term. Which may be why, just as humans are wired for speech, we may be wired to accept the irrational for social-cognitive reasons like being accepted by others, or to uphold magical thinking because it is culturally significant to one’s group.

There’s a colloquialism in computer programming which deals with the validity of outcomes. It essentially concerns input, throughput, and output, and it’s called “Garbage in equals garbage out.” In essence the idea is that, if the input you’ve entered is faulty, poorly designed, inaccurate, or just plain terrible, then what goes through the system and what comes out at the end will be faulty, poorly designed, inaccurate, or just plain terrible. There should be no expectation that “Garbage In” will ever equal “Quality Out.”

The number of people who claim religious affiliation, attend houses of worship and who are giving to religious organizations, are historically at their lowest in generations. These steep declines are impacted by many things, like the rise in secular culture, higher education levels and incomes, an increased social safety net, and the ability for science to explain reality while also making daily life better.

Indeed, the data is not just noted by freethought organizations, but by secular and religious ones as well. We often rely on Pew Research for much of the information on these non-religious trends, but we can also look to the Barna Group, a religious-based survey company, as well as data gleaned by the Catholic Church, which all show the same overlapping trends regarding the decrease of religiosity.

The freethought community views the increasing lack of religious belief as a widening of the tent of personal freedom, social activism, and intellectual development. Whereas the faithful and their organizations view this same data as a stark warning of things to come and a reminder of their past and ongoing failures.

Yet the persistence of biased religiosity and magical thinking remains even as it is frequently bested by our modernity. Perhaps it is something more like a crutch for some rather than a hard-coded belief? Perhaps it’s fear of losing one’s family or community if one becomes an “outsider.” Or even still, it could be that there are still so many closed-loop communities of faith, that ideas that might lead to questioning are so antithetical to one’s sense of self, that just attempting to think differently is seen by the individual and community as a mind virus?

As an anthropologist, I tend to think in the broadest social terms possible, both comparing and differentiating our current ways of life to the past, while also comparing them with other modern cultures. All to show the range of human cultural possibilities.

And so, while this essay has focused on the psychology of faith and belief, as well as other forms of internal causation, I admit that my perspective may appear to emit some forms of bias as well! Even as I’ve attempted to add some cultural variables which may play a role in breeding bias, magical thinking and the mind virus, too.

However, this does not mean I am incorrect in what I’ve written, but it does mean if you’re a skeptic or a freethinker, that you should be prepared to read and study from various sources to form your own conclusions on the ideas which I’ve presented.We cannot claim authority of our conclusions if we fall back into the same biases and inferences that we find so doubtful–and often painful – that our religious and spiritual brethren resort to.