A Cognitively Dissonant Faith

Over at Parchment and Pen, Michael Patton had an interesting post about a person Virginia who apparently was “de-converted” from Christianity after 23 years of cognitively dissonant faith. Here are some thoughts:

Apparently, Virginia made a commitment to Christianity during a time of crisis in her family:

Virginia: “Christianity thrives on human suffering and yearn for community. It was precisely under these circumstances that I committed myself to Christ at 19 years old, when my family got into serious trouble — father filed for bankruptcy, my parents separated.”

Many people turn to religion in times of trouble in their lives. Such people tend to make a decision to follow a religion during emotional situations on a whim. After they are “in” they begin investigate the truth claims of the religion to find reasons for their belief. This latter phase usually happens after the crisis situation has finished. If during this period they do not find reasonable answers for their questions, they lead cognitively dissonant lives. For some, they find the answers they were looking for and some don’t. The latter group tend to be frustrated and lose their way. This is a very cumulative process as they investigate more and more issues, they become skeptical increasingly and as such come to identify with a skeptical viewpoint eventually.

Virginia: “I began fervently witnessing Christ, became a cell group leader on Bible study, witnessed to friends and relatives about Jesus and the salvation, using the tracts supplied from my church. I was active in church and in my college years, also leaded evangelizing activities witnessing Jesus. However, I sensed in the entire ethos of this set of belief, some incompleteness.”

Mike Patton comments on the “incompleteness” she mentions:

I would imagine that the “incompleteness” comes from a rising realization of “cognitive dissonance.” Cognitive dissonance describes a physiological condition[sic] where a person’s beliefs are in contradiction to other beliefs or the way they live. Often people’s habitual patterns do not harmonize with their intellectual convictions. In Christianity, it is often the case where people live according to a Christian worldview due to traditional bents without ever experiencing a true cognitive or intellectual conversion to such. This produces a dichotomous life of dissonance—inconsistency in their beliefs and practices. I would imagine that this is the case with Virginia.

Cognitive Dissonance is a psychological condition btw and the stress it brings is magnified in a situation like this where a person is inconsistent in their actions rather than in their thoughts. Mike then reveals some reasons for her leaving the faith. Some of them I found rather unreasonable.

Virginia: “Attempt to use existing apologetic materials on the origins of life, creation etc. lead me to nowhere — for I read enough materials that clearly debunks ideas like Intelligent Design etc.”

Something tells me that she had sought some fundy young earth creationist apologetics. Something from this also tells me that a clever use of rhetoric would sway the opinion of this person. The most foolish thing one could do is look for “scientific” answers for this. It seems like she had attempted to construct a theology based on scientific opinions. That is very dangerous as scientific opinions can and will change while dogma cannot. Trying to construct a dogma out of a continually changing opinion would not be a wise thing to do. Once you construct a theology like that to which you are obviously emotionally attached then confirmation bias can get alarmingly high. It will be hard to accept any counter evidence while also lead to internal despair as you are pushed to a corner. Understanding the nature of Science and the Scientific Method can go a long way in evaluating claims by apologists of both skeptical and religious bent especially when an apologist is overstating his/her case. Being a scientist helps a little…:-)

I noticed something that confirmed my suspicions…

Virginia: I look to atheist sites like infidel.org and books by Richard Dawkins — and there I realize that Christianity is the “gap” worshiper — whenever there’s something inexplicable, “God” is the default — the inconsistency of Christian’s approach to answer questions about scientific truth prove to be a very strong push factor that cause me to say no — I am not into superstition — no matter how Christians packaged their “scientific ideas” — that very assumption of God (requiring unquestioning faith) cannot be accepted — it leaves the ultimate core in the balance — we based our outlook of life, morality etc. on something that simply “accepted as truth”.

Ah! Richard Dawkins. Right! It is easy to convince a person who looks to this guy. Seriously, come on. If there is one guy who can use rhetoric to impute maximum emotional force, it is Richard Dawkins. However, such emotional appeals are hardly convincing for a person who can see past the smoke and mirrors. It is sad that this woman got into fundy groups where a God is not worshipped rather “gaps” are. But it seems mistaken to proclaim that God in Christianity is an “assumption” “requiring unquestioning faith”. It seems naïve to suggest that a belief in God as revealed in Christianity requires unquestioning faith when there are reasonable arguments for the existence of God and in the Bible itself are exhortations to question what you believe. The word “faith” used here presumably means “belief without evidence” while a biblical use of the word “faith” does not reflect such an understanding. The former meaning is used frequently by atheistic rhetoric as a means of ridicule. More on this type of “Faith” later…