From a religious person’s point of view, why do they not have a good reason to believe that their personal convictions don’t correlate with truth?
I was attempting to show that even with all the reasons taken away—with all the empirical evidence, with the experts telling him that his memories are false—with nothing left but his own naked feeling of conviction, a normal, healthy human being may very well retain his conviction.
Now, if a person wanted to state a reason for retaining his conviction, he might argue as follows: “this conviction in my own innocence is the consequence of the fact of my innocence, and is thus evidence of my innocence—the only evidence I have left”. If A tends to cause B and not-A tends to prevent B, then B is evidence (though not proof) of A. Our brains are built so that facts tend (however imperfectly) to cause beliefs in those facts. Thus, if we find in ourselves a belief in some fact, then this is evidence (however imperfect) that the fact is true.
This, however, is all after-the-fact reasoning to support the simple psychological phenomenon of retaining one’s own convictions. That phenomenon can be explained and justified, as I did in the paragraph above, but the phenomenon itself is simply the habit of sticking to one’s convictions, even in the face of evidence to the contrary. The phenomenon is stubbornness in one’s beliefs. Once one starts believing something, then one keeps believing it. Notice I’m not saying anything about this being a belief in a world they want to live in. I don’t think that stuff is essential. Once you have a belief, however you got it, you tend to stick to it, even when the evidence goes against it. It’s normal to do that. And, sometimes, it’s the right thing to do.
I was attempting to show that even with all the reasons taken away—with all the empirical evidence, with the experts telling him that his memories are false—with nothing left but his own naked feeling of conviction, a normal, healthy human being may very well retain his conviction.
Now, if a person wanted to state a reason for retaining his conviction, he might argue as follows: “this conviction in my own innocence is the consequence of the fact of my innocence, and is thus evidence of my innocence—the only evidence I have left”. If A tends to cause B and not-A tends to prevent B, then B is evidence (though not proof) of A. Our brains are built so that facts tend (however imperfectly) to cause beliefs in those facts. Thus, if we find in ourselves a belief in some fact, then this is evidence (however imperfect) that the fact is true.
This, however, is all after-the-fact reasoning to support the simple psychological phenomenon of retaining one’s own convictions. That phenomenon can be explained and justified, as I did in the paragraph above, but the phenomenon itself is simply the habit of sticking to one’s convictions, even in the face of evidence to the contrary. The phenomenon is stubbornness in one’s beliefs. Once one starts believing something, then one keeps believing it. Notice I’m not saying anything about this being a belief in a world they want to live in. I don’t think that stuff is essential. Once you have a belief, however you got it, you tend to stick to it, even when the evidence goes against it. It’s normal to do that. And, sometimes, it’s the right thing to do.