theories on the nature of belief
The ideas put forth in the lastest article at Pandagon, “Believers Believe, Yes, But Because They Want To“, and especially the comments this piece is going to draw, are going to be interesting.
Many people will be put off by the overt atheism of the source, but beyond that, there’s some really interesting questions about the nature of belief and how and why people come around to believing (or not) the things they do (or don’t), why evangelism, from whatever direction, doesn’t work on people already invested in something, and, seemingly paradoxically (but not really), why those most invested in something are often the most likely to reject it, whereas people who just don’t think about things very deeply end up being an idea’s most vehement defenders.
Watch the space – there’s likely to be a lot of big ideas and heavy thought flying around before long.
It’s the kind of thing that seems to be begging for a completely tl;dr essay from me, and someday I might even get around to writing it. But, right now, I’m busy wrapping up my work year, and once I do that, I’m probably going to be taking a break from heavy internet lifting beyond the occasional funny link and maybe a couple of half-hearted “year-end” list posts. You all will just have to live with that.
