Congratulations; what you wrote here makes a lot of sense! It is probably very frequent that people cling to a belief because of what having this belief means about them. “Am I a good person or a bad person for believing X?”
A word of warning though: we cannot easily revert this stupidity, because it can work both ways. For example, both “I believe in X, because I am a good person” and “I don’t believe in X, because I am a sophisticated person” are ultimately about your image. At the end, the only thing relevant to making correct beliefs about X is, well, the evidence about X. Not what it means about us.
Also, words like “bad” are probably too general. Your father can be doing a good thing A, and a bad thing B (and a morally neutral thing C) -- these facts are not mutually exclusive. It might make more sense to be more specific about the ways he disappoints you, and the ways he doesn’t.
Congratulations; what you wrote here makes a lot of sense! It is probably very frequent that people cling to a belief because of what having this belief means about them. “Am I a good person or a bad person for believing X?”
A word of warning though: we cannot easily revert this stupidity, because it can work both ways. For example, both “I believe in X, because I am a good person” and “I don’t believe in X, because I am a sophisticated person” are ultimately about your image. At the end, the only thing relevant to making correct beliefs about X is, well, the evidence about X. Not what it means about us.
Also, words like “bad” are probably too general. Your father can be doing a good thing A, and a bad thing B (and a morally neutral thing C) -- these facts are not mutually exclusive. It might make more sense to be more specific about the ways he disappoints you, and the ways he doesn’t.
Everything I wanted to say you said better and before, so have a karma (the original post too).
It’s almost like we read the same Sequences. :D
OMG, it’s a brainwashing cult, run for your lives!!!