Quote Originally Posted by Baloo View Post
I was reading recently about how we process information and make decisions. In essence, we often jump to uninformed, instinctive initial opinions and beliefs about something and then set about filtering-out and dismissing any information that contradicts this belief whilst gathering anything that appears to support it.

We don’t actually use reasoning a lot of the time we just invent arguments to support out intuitive beliefs. It’s due to the way our brains have evolved into areas that manage automatic and controlled thought processes, which are sometimes in conflict.

So it’s really just the way we are and we often don’t realise we’re doing it but it can be observed. It’s probably why you very rarely see people acknowledging they’ve shifted their views in these discussions and why we get so frustrated with others who just can’t see our own point of view. This isn’t just some people, we all have this tendency. So basically we’re wasting our time here
That's how religion exists. Indoctrinate someone at an early age and they can happily dismiss science where it is convenient and put their beliefs in deities for which there is no evidence and which came about when mankind didn't know about evolution, microbes, electricity, atoms and a million other things. They see no dichotomy between having advanced medical treatment and praying to their god to allow them to survive. The same god let it happen to them in the first place. I remember seeing a little old lady on TV who survived an earthquake and she said that she thanked 'God' for her survival. Sadly and ironically, many other people (most of them far younger) perished who her god deigned not to spare.
No god seems to have made an appearance during the Holocaust or during devastating events such as the Bubonic Plague or to put a stop to wars that have killed millions of people. In the case of the Abrahamist god perhaps he is waiting for a leper to come along.