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> The closest human parallel is self-deception, which is common and well studied by psychologists. Motivated reasoning, motivated cognition16 and the rationaliz

• ako 4d ago
  Come on, it’s way more common than that. We’ve invented 3000+ gods and almost as many religions, most of them are incompatible with each other. So, most of these must be incorrect, so a huge amount of self-deception. But as Harari argued in his book sapiens, humans can be inspired to great things by stories, even if false. Self deception has served humanity in a big way.
  • graemep 4d ago
    > t. We’ve invented 3000+ gods and almost as many religions, most of them are incompatible with each other. 1. Most people believe in the same one God 2. A lot of the rest are compatible 3. Mistakes are not self-deception
    • kowbell 3d ago
      > 1. Most people believe in the same one God > 2. A lot of the rest are compatible No one religion covers "most people." You could argue that Christianity and Islam (which add up to ~55%) are the same God because of their Abrahamic roots, but both religions have very important disagreements on the true nature of God that are fundamental to their beliefs and fundamentally incompatible with each other. Their definitions of God do agree that there is exactly one God... which is fundamentally incompatible with the next two biggest religions (Hinduism and Buddhism) that both hold "there are many gods/divine heavenly beings" as core beliefs.
      • graemep 3d ago
        Christianity, Islam and Judaism are most people between then, as you agree. They explicitly all worship the same God so not "incompatible gods". I did not claim there were no disagreements about the nature of God, but that it only adds one to the GP's claim of 3,000 incompatible Gods. Even if Christians are completely right theologically, Jews and Muslims are still mostly right - one God, a loving creator, omnipotent and omniscient etc. AFAIK most Hindus are pantheists, so believe on one God, albeit of a very different nature. Buddhists do not necessarily believe in any god at all. Buddhism and Hinduism are definitely compatible with each other. I know lots of Buddhists who make offerings in Hindu temples, for example. Gods of many polytheistic religions are compatible, you just add more gods or identify similar gods with each other (e.g. Sulis Minerva who was also Venus). They can also be compatible with pantheism - you just add more aspects of God. At the most almost all human religions fit into a handful of broadly similar systems.
        • ako 3d ago
          I’ll agree with your last 3 words: they’re broadly similar systems - systems of deceit and self-deception. They may share the same god, but for 99% they’re different enough that they think they can kill one another and their god will approve, or even give them gifts. For 99% these religions are incompatible.
          • queenkjuul 3d ago
            99℅ of people do not believe in murdering others for their religious beliefs
      • ako 3d ago
        Exactly, and all Jews think Jesus is a fake. And on top of that all the past gods, Roman, Greek, Inca, Vikings, etc.