Freedom had been hunted round the globe; reason was considered as rebellion; and the slavery of fear had made men afraid to think. But such is the irresistible nature of truth, that all it asks, and all it wants, is the liberty of appearing.
~ Thomas Paine, Rights of Man, 1791 ~

Sunday, March 23, 2014

The psychology of belief

Millions of people believe in some form of deity who created the universe, including the earth and humankind, and then proceeded to reveal to humans its purpose, including some grand plan for human salvation. There are many variations and incompatible ideas across many different religions, yet the proponents of each one believe that their religion is the one true religion, implying that all others must be false.

How can this be? How do we determine who is right? Surely they can't all be wrong, can they?

Well, as it turns out, science has studied many aspects of human psychology, and figured out some interesting things about how our brains work.

This fantastic series of short videos explains exactly why humans easily become convinced of things even when the evidence is lacking, and sometimes when there is no evidence at all.

Part 1 of 12...



Or CLICK HERE to watch the full series.