I don’t see how calling it incoherent is any less disapproving. And I expect the problem is not the particular phase I used, but the level of incomprehension expressed, otherwise you would have suggested some actual expression of incomprehension, wouldn’t you? What I want to express is that I have no explanation for the presence of the apparent belief and unsuccessfully searched for possible justifications without finding anything that looked promising at any stage. Calling it incoherent would imply that I expect a psychological explanation instead of a justification to be the cause of the belief. I don’t have that expectation.
I meant for my suggestion to denotationally express the same thing as what you said. But the connotations of “I can’t even begin to imagine...” are different from the connotations of ”...sounds incoherent.”
In contexts more familiar to you, ”...sounds incoherent” may express more disapproval; but in the colloquial English I’m familiar with, it’s the more neutral phrase.
I don’t see how calling it incoherent is any less disapproving. And I expect the problem is not the particular phase I used, but the level of incomprehension expressed, otherwise you would have suggested some actual expression of incomprehension, wouldn’t you? What I want to express is that I have no explanation for the presence of the apparent belief and unsuccessfully searched for possible justifications without finding anything that looked promising at any stage. Calling it incoherent would imply that I expect a psychological explanation instead of a justification to be the cause of the belief. I don’t have that expectation.
I meant for my suggestion to denotationally express the same thing as what you said. But the connotations of “I can’t even begin to imagine...” are different from the connotations of ”...sounds incoherent.”
In contexts more familiar to you, ”...sounds incoherent” may express more disapproval; but in the colloquial English I’m familiar with, it’s the more neutral phrase.