There is something I call the “Self-Reinforcement Principle” which states that what feels better to believe is true, and that itself also feels better to believe, therefore it is indeed true as well. I personally do believe in the SRP, and therefore, if it seems like I am attempting to cause someone to believe in it, I also presumably wouldn’t need to feel worried about persuasion, because the SRP says that true things already feel better to believe (and are automatically more persuasive).
Therefore, I think you can rest assured that whenever you see someone say things that sound like they are in favor of the SRP, you can feel confident that they are at the very least, honest about what they believe and well-intentioned, even if you think they are ultimately incorrect.
If things that are true feel better to believe, explain why people who believe that an Abrahamic God exists explain their belief by saying it benefits their happiness, even though God does not exist. If your theory was true, people would be happier believing in the absence of an Abrahamic God, and they are not happier.
People are happy to disbelieve in bad gods, happier to believe in good ones, and usually (in my experience, at least), happiest to believe in the primacy of the self above all.
Not to “wax-theologian” too much here, but people often seem to believe in a one-God-only when that one-God is the most affirming or validating to believe in as possible. (That He made you perfectly already, for example).
There is something I call the “Self-Reinforcement Principle” which states that what feels better to believe is true, and that itself also feels better to believe, therefore it is indeed true as well. I personally do believe in the SRP, and therefore, if it seems like I am attempting to cause someone to believe in it, I also presumably wouldn’t need to feel worried about persuasion, because the SRP says that true things already feel better to believe (and are automatically more persuasive).
Therefore, I think you can rest assured that whenever you see someone say things that sound like they are in favor of the SRP, you can feel confident that they are at the very least, honest about what they believe and well-intentioned, even if you think they are ultimately incorrect.
“Resist the Happy Death Spiral”
If things that are true feel better to believe, explain why people who believe that an Abrahamic God exists explain their belief by saying it benefits their happiness, even though God does not exist. If your theory was true, people would be happier believing in the absence of an Abrahamic God, and they are not happier.
People are happy to disbelieve in bad gods, happier to believe in good ones, and usually (in my experience, at least), happiest to believe in the primacy of the self above all.
Not to “wax-theologian” too much here, but people often seem to believe in a one-God-only when that one-God is the most affirming or validating to believe in as possible. (That He made you perfectly already, for example).