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Why do so few people think logically?

Oct 26, 2014 | Economy, Faith | 0 comments

We didn’t evolve to think logically.  We evolved to survive and reproduce and this involved filling the gaps of our knowledge with magical thinking.  This is because magical thinking helped group cohesion and kept people from the unknown.   How many aboriginal cultures do you know that were discovered practicing atheism?  Logical thinking was pioneered by the Greek philosophers and got a boost in the 18th century.  However it has always taken some effort to do so and so it has remained a trait of the more intelligent and reflective.

Consumerism and religion.  These are ever-present forces that will do everything in their power to keep you from thinking logically and deconstructively.  Their life depends on it.  If everybody realized how idiotic buying all the shit you didn’t need to impress people you didn’t like was, the economy would collapse.  Similarly, if people started thinking logically about religion, a lot of them would leave it and religious institutions would lose a lot of their power.  In fact, in modern society religion and consumerism are often intertwined (just look at the megachurches where it’s more about pleasing the parishioners than instilling virtue).  Both these forces are deeply rooted in society and if you stop playing lip service to either you’ll be scorned (though the scorning manifests itself differently for each force).

Romantic love.  If you’re rich and you think logically about the poorer partner, you’ll realize that they only like you for your money and if they marry you they’re made because they can either stay and have the money or leave and get it.  So the poorer partner will do everything in their power to get the richer one to stop thinking logically.

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