The Believing Brain - Michael Shermer - Part 5

The Believing Brain - Michael Shermer

2017 Reading Challenge - Day 152

  June 1, 2017 

Book 45 - The Believing Brain - From Ghosts and God
to Politics and Conspiracies - How We Construct Beliefs
and Reinforce them as Truths
Michael Shermer (2011)
 Part 5 - pages 228-279
Reading Time - 1 hour

Now we're into politics... and the distinction between liberals and conservatives. Basically... there is a difference in moral values. Liberals emphasize harm/care and fairness/reciprocity while conservatives emphasize in-group/loyalty, authority/respect and purity/sanctity. This is actually a very helpful thing to have it laid out so clearly.

Maybe I missed it at the beginning of the book but... what is "belief". For me... belief is an idea, a theory of how we are and how the world works. It is not the same as knowing. In many respects we can say that a lot of our scientific theories are simply beliefs as well. Up until now... all the evidence supports the belief... and until it is proved false, it works. Which makes me wonder... if someone wants to believe in God... and the evidence works for them... then that's their belief. They have a theory that God exists... and unless something comes along to disprove that theory.... I don't know... but that's just how it seems to me.

On the other hand, our brains want us to be right so we interpret information to confirm our beliefs. Hindsight is 20/20 so after the fact, we can find all sorts of indicators that we're shocked that we missed. The author goes into a long section on cognitive biases that shape our beliefs.