The Psychology of Belief - Bias and the Brain

In this clip, Dr. Lack addresses the biases that so often inform religious (and non-religious) worldviews.

[GodWorksOut]

If you are believing in a fantasy because that helps you cope, I am perfectly fine with that. When you start letting that belief affect everyone else, that's when I take offense.

[IsaacAsimov]

How good it is to discover yet another voice of reason on YouTube.

[BastEternal]

" I guess the scientific method is the best we can do though, despite its limitations."

Agreed. The scientific method may not be perfect, and it has its flaws, but it's the best thing we currently have to explain how things work.

[wojovox]

This psychologist is perfect for delivering the point precisely and quick.

[Holdontohope]

I have been thinking the same thing since my sophomore year of college. College doesn't make you smart but rather specialized your knowledge in a specific field and is arranged to give you the tools to be critical and make lagical decisions in life. I see how many at my school who aren't learning anything other than grades grades grades. Who the hell cares about grades unless you are heading somewhere huge, if not a moderate life goal to start. We need more critical thinkers yo

[p.bamygdala]

Thanks for the video! I'm glad to have found a few new book titles to pick up and authors to research.

I'm fascinated by the neuroscience of belief, particularly of religion, and all the advances being made in understanding how our prefrontal cortex chooses which version of reality to accept.

[AI-dill]

"Screw you, im double right"😂

[Wutzthedeal]

Yes.  Thank you.  VALUE TRUTH.  LEARN CRITICAL THINKING.  Some truth hurts, but learn it anyway.  

[seb]

i agree. it forces us to be responsible and see the consequences of our own actions and i think that outlook can make a huge difference in anybody that understands it. i wouldn't wish to deny anyone spirituality but it seems obvious to me that more profound spirituality can be found in our compassion, contemplation and our understanding of the natural world, than can ever be found in the anthropomorphised explanations found within much scripture.

[dmorono]

Thanks. And it's been a great journey. My mind is now freed to explore any possibility instead of being corralled by my faith. And I've learned a LOT! It's a whole new world out there, now, one filled with reason, facts, and reality instead of fables, myths and fantasies.

[TheCantjes]

A long overdue thank you for your amazing work

[dmorono]

He is so RIGHT!. I had a bias for the supernatural from a very young age. I could not easily think rationally. I thought more emotionally and intuitively. As I got older, I became a staunch Christian. One day, about 2 years ago, I got very ill with a life threatening infection and ran a very high temperature. For reasons I don't understand, after I recovered, I could think very rationally. I then assessed my now seemingly silly beliefs, and within weeks I made the journey from religion to reason

[LadyHawke]

Wow. I just attended a workshop today on Jungian Psychology and the Collective unconscious, and after I spoke up and challenged a pastor in our audience regarding spirituality and how this "need to believe in something greater" is something that we have evolved to WANT to believe, we got into a fantastic discussion about Jung's theories of "God" or "the Divine" as being akin to man's consruct of the Actualised Self. (Every culture has this.)
FYI- the pastor ignored me for the rest of the day XD

[odd]

There was a study in Gemany that proved the power of belief. A psychologist posed as a ghost hunter and convinced 8 participants who already believed in ghosts that the forest they were going to was used for executions during the beginning of WW2. As a result, hikers and hunters had heard of very strange noises and felt weird feelings. The participants went in at night and said they felt the hairs on the back of their neck stand up, brushes on their arm, strange noises etc

[MilitantPeaceist]

I know that Steven supports 'Computational theory of mind' Which deals precisely with propositional attitudes & the way in which the mind deals with them.
Again, disbelief is a complication of believing other things that contradict the proportion being assessed.
This does not mean that when you walk away you will forever hold that opposite belief as a core belief but it is indistinguishable at that moment of assessing the proposition & concluding a disbelief.
This is core psychology.

[cyber]

It's funny you should mention that. There was some internet poll a few months ago. 10, 000 + atheists took it. It only had two questions. Over 90% said that if they HAD to pick a religion, or a new religion from the one they used to have, they would pick buddhism as their answer to the first question.

The second question was why that religion.
The majority said; because Buddhism isn't brittle, doesn't clash with demonstrable reality and will CORRECT itself if any of it is demonstrable false.

[MilitantPeaceist]

To further demonstrate this.
Doubt is what prompts inquiry. It is said to be the 'un-resting' psychic state. If forces the mind to evaluate the proposition to come to a conclusion. This is what underpins psychology.
If you cannot resolve the doubt via knowledge (facts), you have only 1 of 2 choices, to either confirm the proposition through bias (faith) or to ignore it.
This is psychology 101.

[zeus]

This was a very good short video. More people need to see this. I was on my knees every night praying until my 2nd year of high school. That is when I became intensely interested in biology. Advanced study into biology caused a shocking realization of my world of fantasy to a world of evidence. Many years have gone by since then and I have never looked back.

[MrCBRY]

If you're trying to demonstrate a non-religious example of the same kind of faulty thinking discussed in the video, you're doing an exceptional job.

[MilitantPeaceist]

'Context' is an argument from a religious thought.
"An atheist is someone who is certain that God does not exist, " Carl Sagan 1981.
He knows exactly what he was saying & he defined his thoughts & position on atheism succinctly.