Reason: Confidence In or Fear Of?

Eureka, I now understand!

This morning I happened to turn on the TV at exactly 6 AM and my TV was tuned to Public Television and a program labeled Critical Thinking had just begun. The thirty minute program consisted of short answers by about a dozen individuals to the question “What is critical thinking”? The individuals questioned varied from judges, school teachers, lawyers, college professors, writers, etc.; all of whom one might expect to be knowledgeable about the subject of critical thinking.

One interviewee said that to convince anyone to change their mind about anything I must first comprehend their fear of changing their mind. I thought about this for a few minutes and like a cartoon character, a light bulb appeared above my head. Here was the answer to the question I have been pondering for decades

Perhaps the most important thing we must comprehend about human nature is that humans fear a loss of self determination; humans fear that reason will inhibit their self-determination.

I grew up in a Catholic family and went to Catholic schools. The nuns taught us that we had a conscience (the moral sense of the blameworthiness of ones own behavior). This conscience would, when properly trained, help to keep us from doing bad stuff. Before we went to confession we were to ‘examine our conscience’; our conscience kept a firm record of these misdeeds that we must confess to the priest.

My understanding convinces me that most people fear the effects of reason. Many people fear reason just as a Catholic child fears conscience. Many people fear that reason will deprive them of self determination and certainty. Such a fear can be assuaged only by developing a confidence in reason.

Do you agree with my understanding or do you fear that I have lost my reason?

Perhaps the most important thing we must comprehend about human nature is that humans fear a loss of self determination; humans fear that reason will inhibit their self-determination.

Most human beings are prone to superstition.

These people fear *reason* because if their minds come to be guided by reason it will destroy their capacity for "faith".

And "faith" is the opposite of reason.... because reason imposes very strict limits on what can be true, while faith has no limits at all. If you have "faith" you can convince yourself of the existence of ANYthing, including leprechauns, unicorns, fairies, demons and gods.

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It's not easy to change world views. Faith has its own momentum and belief is comfortable. To restructure reality is traumatic and scary. That is why many intelligent people continue to believe: unbelief is an unknown. [Dan Barker, Losing Faith in Faith]

I have met many fairies (they prefer to be called 'gay', just so you know), I have unfortunately dated a few demons, and I am considered a God in certain circles.

Coberst, developing a confidence in reason is a good thing, and pursuing that thought process (critical thinking) is not necessarily at odds with 'faith', devotion, trust, honesty, integrity, or any of the other elusive states of being in these troubled times.

Do you want a silver bullet to answer all of life's problems, or do you just seek a comforting context to life's contradictions?
The Nuns didn't mean you any harm, (well, most of them didn't anyway), they were just fulfilling their obligation to their higher authority.

My advice?
Embrace critical thinking, but do not abandon your conscience.
The two concepts are not mutually-exclusive. (And everything that our elders tried to teach us back in the day are not necessarily wrong.)

It's ok to pick and choose. It's your life.

My understanding convinces me that most people fear the effects of reason. Many people fear reason just as a Catholic child fears conscience. Many people fear that reason will deprive them of self determination and certainty. Such a fear can be assuaged only by developing a confidence in reason. I find that statement interesting coberst. I was raised as a Catholic and never once did I fear conscience. Neither did it scare me to face squarely some of the childish things that I had done wrong. I do not think people fear that reason will deprive them of self determination. Rather I think they fear facing the blackest part of themselves. Too bad really for that is the only path to true freedom. I think confession (and the Jews day of atonement) is one advantage that they have over Protestants. Examining true motive and finding forgiveness. People find self hate preferable to forgiveness of self.

I don't understand why anyone would fear reason. Perhaps some do, but surely many people continually ask "why" and then try to reason it out. Certainly young kids aggravate their parents by the number of times they ask why, why, why!!:) Maybe it's the difficulty of finding rationale explanations that stop some from reasoning. Maybe, some parents, teachers whosoever drive the curiosity out of them.
Trying to apply reason, critical thinking, etc., is often quite fun. However, it can lead into some areas that are frightening. Typically such areas would be those where we have no understanding at all. What does eternity mean? What is infinity? There is a temptation to run from such thoughts.
Other times, reason and critical thinking lead to self examination. Not always a nice thing to do, but necessary for understanding oneself. It's also very difficult to critically examine oneself. Perhaps that's why some pay their shrinks so much :)

You may be correct in your understanding. I certainly cannot prove you wrong, but I also cannot make a generalization like that.

Oldtimer

I think that understanding is a creation of meaning. It is subjective and unlike knowing, which is about truth, understanding is about meaning. Understanding is a portrait painted by an artist, each artist will find a different meaning in the subject of a portrait.

Many people fear reason just as a Catholic child fears conscienceI thought catholic children feared priests...

I thought catholic children feared priests...
only if you're male...