We’re Stuck With Our Cognitive Biases

Here’s something I wrote a friend who happens to be a politically conservative atheist that I thought I’d share:

I’m sure you’re aware that people who believe in monotheistic religions interpret anything that happens to them as God’s acting in a particular way. If it’s good, He answered my prayers. If it’s bad, He’s opening a door for me or it’s part of His plan, or He works in mysterious ways or it’s a result of my sin or wavering commitment to Him, or whatever. All these things cohere; there are no conceivable events that could call upon me to question what I believe, and shake my certainty that a loving God is interacting in every aspect of my life.

Of course, this sounds like nonsense to atheists, yet even non-believers if they are to be honest with themselves, see that they are in a surprisingly similar position.

There is nothing that could convince me that Donald Trump is a force for good, and that the dishonest, liberal media hounded him out of office, just while he was Making America Great Again–that Fox News and a few others like OAN have it right and every other news source on the entire planet has it wrong. It’s truly inconceivable to me.

Similarly, I doubt there is something that could convince you that a social democracy, e.g., the culture of Western Europe and Scandinavia, is superior to what we have here.

As I’ve mentioned previously, this is what’s wrong with the “Coherence Theory of Truth” that we find in Western philosophy.  For both of us, everything we encounter that has any political ramifications supports our overall belief system.  They cohere for us.  Yet we both can’t be right.