When it comes to the Big Questions in Life, the preponderance of credible evidence is the best advisor to inform our beliefs. The companion enterprise are the methods by which one interprets the evidence which demand unwavering intellectual honesty.
Nowhere in the definition of Religion is there a mandate for religions to self-challenge or revamp their theological positions based on new enlightenment. Rather, a religion adopts a central orthodoxy and perpetuates it.
We also have to be particularly wary of imaginative thought processes for we can very easily create things and ideas in our minds that are outright impossible or highly improbable to be manifested in the world-universe which we then deceive ourselves into thinking that they are either certain or probable likelihoods. We often take several different pieces of information or instilled beliefs and loosely wed them together to bestow some greater meaning which falsely represents reality.
One of the things that I find especially worrisome is the propensity for people to perceive reality as dyadic, comprised of two oppositional elements. Some prominent examples are our assignment of goodâevil, rightâwrong, justâunjust, heavenâhell, conservativeâliberal, richâpoor, usâthem. I also refer to this as compartmental minimalism because of our tendency to force our understanding of reality into as few categories as possible. Essentially, by perceiving reality in this way, we intentionally and unintentionally, reduce the cognitive load. We do not want the hassle of too many details or abstractions; however, this convenience comes at a cost that goes unacknowledged. We essentially build a false reality bit-by-bit.