The mind and the nature of beliefs

Science deals with the mind of men via fields of study such as psychology, biology, and cognitive science, and all facts of life (mind is just a fact of life) as well as physical and chemical processes which are not tied with biology.

When it comes to willful suspension of disbeliefs of reason and logic and fact or its flip side--the willing beliefs in the nonsense and the illogical and the fanciful, science has a term for it: wishful thinking which is studied by psychologists and philosophers.

The bottom line is some humans want to believe whatever they want to believe. Reality and scientific investigations are very foreign to them. Education can only carry us to part of the journey. The rest of trip from darkness to light, from ignorance to understanding, from superstition to healthy skepticism and empiricism, is up to us. Those who have courage and an undying sense of inquiry will be nearer the finish line than those who have not.

Men do not always do what they want, otherwise satisfaction would overflow in this world. Men usually are forced to do things they don't want to do, but because of economic necessity or physical survival they carry out the tasks demanded from them. There's a thing called coercion.

A legal system may require men (and women) of certain age to be drafted for military service. I maintain that majority of the draftees do not relish the compulsory, sanctioned by laws, military service, but they have to discharge their duties as required.

Men are not as free to act in accordance with his desires as it first appears. The area where they enjoy a fair degree of autonomy is thinking. But even so, most men cannot think clearly and are more often than not victims of myths and brainwashing and self-delusions. To think properly requires courage and a burning desire to know, besides rudimentary tools of reasoning. When we read or hear of something, we have to ask ourselves the question if that "something" is universally true, logical, and free of wishful thinking, superstition, and sophistry.

1. I used the term "choice" as a means of communication, not as an affirmation of the lexical meaninng of the word. I was interested in the dynamics, the process of the act of "choice" and question the facile assumption that personal tastes and values are the determing factors whereas in fact in most people laziness and/or lack of awareness that socialization and brainwashing are the determing factors. In other words, for most people, what appears like acts of choice and freedom are acts of laziness and slavery.

2. Some said that that religion, marriage, and career are personal. Thus, general discussions about them should be avoided since they are "above our heads" if discussed here. Once again, I picked these three areas to illustrate the dynamics of choice. I am always interested in the core, the ultimate of things while most people pay more attention to the surface. I think in terms of sociology and philosophy.

The observations about my being a liberal and a lifelong Democrat were correct. My liberalism was grounded on the philosophy of giving the underprivileged a fighting chance. Maybe it derived from my humble economic circumstances. While I received no economic help while growing up, I empathized and sympathized strongly with the poor.

I was not into nitpicking . In disagreeing with some of them, I was trying to see if I could articulate the disagreement. If I could not, that meant I was not on firm ground. The fundamental difference between us is that I see most actions of most men (and women) are not based on their desires and inclinations, but are shaped and governed by forces not within their control or awareness. I am not talking about mundane, trivial matters like the choices of food, color of the car, but about meaningful matters where choices based on tastes and values SEEM to play a role, but upon closer examination they do not. Three examples should suffice:

1. Choice of spouse.

Ideally, a spouse should be chosen after a careful, exhaustive search of potential mates. In reality, we often setlle for second, third best because of loneliness, shyness, economic, reproductive, and sexual pressures.

2. Job

Most people don't have a true career. They have jobs that they don't particularly like, but are the ones that are available.

3. Religion
At first glance, here it appears choices and tastes are involved, but very often socialization and brainwashing play key roles. Our religion is the one we inherit from our parents (usually from the mother. Evangelical work often is directed at women). We rarely sit down and do research, explore, study the main religions and choose the one that best fits us. Instead, we only have vague notions about the religions which are different from our own. Our affiliation for a certain religion usually is a result of childhood memories og ceremonies and festivities as well as the repeated religious inculcations.

The examples I cited drive home a point that while freedom and choices are available to us, we don't usually exercise the choice due to our laziness or unawareness of the forces of socialization and brainwashing. It takes a very strong person, emotionally and intellectually, to be free and have actions that are based truly on his tastes and desires. True freedom is rare because it requires constant effort and awareness.