Are you sure about that? Let me give a counterexample. I used to be a Christian. Around middle school, I was generally unhappy, and since I had been raised on a steady diet of science fiction and fantasy, I had a conflict between the religious worldview of Christianity and the secular worldview that I used the rest of the time. The rituals in the church just started to seem embarrassingly silly. This was a bad reason to stop believing, but it freed me to start actually thinking about faith and evidence. Without that bad reason, I might not have managed to break free for much longer, if ever. I shudder to think of it.
People can develop the right reasons after bad reasons have freed their mind from the shackles that prevent it from working.
For all you know, ten years from now you might give a different counterexample, explaining why you reconverted to Christianity for bad reasons, but now know that it’s all true...
The problem is that when you become convinced of something for bad reasons, even when you see that those reasons are bad, this doesn’t stop you from rationalizing your decision with new reasons. These reasons may be bad as well, for all you know.
I see sketerpot’s story less as an arbitrary change in beliefs backfilled by rationalizations, and more as him learning that he can change his beliefs in such a fundamental way and then exploring beliefs with epistemic best practices in mind.
But that might just be because it’s also my story.
Are you sure about that? Let me give a counterexample. I used to be a Christian. Around middle school, I was generally unhappy, and since I had been raised on a steady diet of science fiction and fantasy, I had a conflict between the religious worldview of Christianity and the secular worldview that I used the rest of the time. The rituals in the church just started to seem embarrassingly silly. This was a bad reason to stop believing, but it freed me to start actually thinking about faith and evidence. Without that bad reason, I might not have managed to break free for much longer, if ever. I shudder to think of it.
People can develop the right reasons after bad reasons have freed their mind from the shackles that prevent it from working.
For all you know, ten years from now you might give a different counterexample, explaining why you reconverted to Christianity for bad reasons, but now know that it’s all true...
The problem is that when you become convinced of something for bad reasons, even when you see that those reasons are bad, this doesn’t stop you from rationalizing your decision with new reasons. These reasons may be bad as well, for all you know.
I see sketerpot’s story less as an arbitrary change in beliefs backfilled by rationalizations, and more as him learning that he can change his beliefs in such a fundamental way and then exploring beliefs with epistemic best practices in mind.
But that might just be because it’s also my story.