A lot of beliefs we have are "load-bearing" - for example, some Christians think they have to believe in God in order to have a sense of morality. "If I lose my faith, what's to stop me from being a bad person?"
So they never truly consider changing their beliefs, because the-
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implications are too horrible. Their evaluation of reality isn't based on data or reasoning - it's influenced by the imagined bad consequences of changing their mind.
Another example is that someone might refuse to acknowledge that black people tend to do worse in school, cause -
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the implication might be that black people are dumb, and the idea that mental quality might correspond with race is horrifying.
But I truly believe that the truth will always save you, even if it's scary and even if you can't see how. Yes, it's scary to believe that -
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losing your faith will also destroy your moral compass, or that black people being bad at school will mean they're dumb, but if you actually accept the truth then you might find that you still want to do good things after becoming atheist, or that black school scores-
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are actually causes by poverty and discrimination.
A lot of the people who get horrified at topics I probe are horrified because I'm challenging a core belief that they need to hold to be okay with themselves. But it'll be all right, I promise. Horrible implications just mean-
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the topic hasn't been fully understood yet. For example, your horror at IQ possibly corresponding with race means that maybe you value people with IQ less, or view them as disposable. Maybe that's actually the issue here - in a world where we respected and cared for everyone-
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regardless of their intelligence, then IQ corresponding genetically with race would be trivial, wouldn't be a scary thing to think about.
So basically, don't be afraid of going into the truth. It will be okay no matter how unpalatable it seems.
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if you base you'r morals on others interpretation of book that has been translated umpteen times rather than your own sense of right and wrong balanced against societies social norms then you have more problems than a lack of faith.
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FYI most (if not all) translations of the Bible are done directly from the source material in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek.
But yeah agreed that people should understand why they believe what they do.
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Hard for libs to reconcile contempt for uneducated people with facts about genetic basis of IQ
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"Why are you so eager to be a bad person that you have to have God in your life to keep you from doing bad things? How often do you stop yourself from doing something evil because you suddenly remembered that God will punish you for it?" (etc)
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