I'll start this topic with a quote direct from the article I've linked to below.

"Erroneous beliefs aren’t easily overturned, and when they’re tinged with emotion, forget about it. "

Indirectly, this is why the Mormon church is so focused on feelings, it is hard for a person to let go of a false belief system once their feelings have taken hold. Data and evidence suddenly don't matter to them, they are unable to see and process new information that conflicts with their feelings, they don't want to see new data that isn't in harmony with their preconceived notions.

This article talks about how people who use their feelings to come to conclusions will struggle to change their belief in their earlier feelings based conclusion, even when presented with new data and evidence. This article is mostly talking about medical concepts, but the underlying story and feelings versus facts is relevant to Mormonism.

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/your-brain-is-primed-to-reach-false-conclusions/

Some quotes from the article that I liked:

"One thing seems clear, though. Simply exposing people to more information doesn’t help."

This has been my experience for sure. Information presented to someone with an emotional attachment to a concept is easily dismissed for any number of reasons.


" Instead of trying to counteract false associations through information, they experimented with ways to improve the way people think.....[T]hey invited a group of teenagers to test a wristband with a metal bar. Using language deliberately filled with jargon and pseudoscientific concepts, the researchers explained that the metal strip could improve physical and intellectual abilities, and the students were invited to test out the product while performing written tasks like solving a maze or number exercise. All the while, the researchers primed the volunteers to find a benefit from the band by raving about how previous users had noticed its alleged properties. By the end of the demonstration, many participants said they’d be willing to buy the magical ferrite strip."

I have been attempting to get my children to learn to think for themselves. To be able to review all the data and make up their own mind. To Mormons in my life, they see this as "toxic" because my children's conclusions are not in line with the Mormon group think conclusions.


"Many psychological studies have shown promising improvements in belief accuracy when it involves matters that participants don’t care about, Nyhan told me. “But the lesson of controversial political, health and science issues is that people don’t apply their critical-thinking skills in the same way when they have a preference for who’s right.”

They could have added religious issues to the list of political, health and science issues. The way the human mind works is the same for all of these.


"If you want someone to accept information that contradicts what they already know, you have to find a story they can buy into. That requires bridging the narrative they’ve already constructed to a new one that is both true and allows them to remain the kind of person they believe themselves to be."

That is the real skill. I have no idea how to do that when it comes to Mormonism. I can present 100's of facts, data and evidence that show it is a man made religion. That is simply isn't what it claims. I cannot construct and bridge a narrative that helps a person understand where I am coming from, that if they left the comfort of Mormonism that they don't become the monster they are told they will become. They actually become a better person.

We see this in science all the time. Cosmology and quantum mechanics are both far more counter-intuitive than evolution, yet they stir very little controversy month the religious.

Turns out the biblical authors didn't have much to say about cosmology, except for that nonsense about the earth being the center of the universe, that Copernicus et al finally ironed out. The biblical authors had nothing whatsoever to say about quantum mechanics. So those fields don't really challenge dogma, so the god-botherers don't keep trying to discredit them.

But the origin of species, a concept far easier to understand, and buttressed by literal mountains of evidence, has been taking religious flack for well over a hundred years now. The god-botherers are losing, but they are going down swinging, and in the process they have done a lot of damage to science.

One other thing - the facts you give someone may not change their mind immediately, but they do go on that infamous "shelf". The shelf may not ever break because of the facts, but it definitely will never break without them.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/13/2017 12:48PM by Brother Of Jerry.