Cognitive Dissonance

It is not uncommon for an individual to hold a core belief that is very strong but built on an assumption. When such an individual is presented with new information or facts that contradict the reasoning behind that core belief, an internal psychological conflict ensues. This internal conflict causes discomfort throwing the mind into disequilibrium. It is human nature for an individual to immediately seek to reach psychological equilibrium as soon as possible. What often results from this human instinct is called cognitive dissonance.

Psychological inconsistency or "dissonance" can occur on it's own without the individual even aware that he is partaking in an inconstant line of thought.

Here are two examples of dissonance.

EXAMPLE 1

Did you catch it? In this picture, the man who is opposed to Obamacare calls it "socialized medicine," while also stating that he wants his medicare left alone. Being opposed to Obamacare and simultaneously approving of medicaid is not inconsistent. They are two separate forms of very different socialized medicinal programs. The dissonance occurring is when the caricature is using the term "socialized medicine" as a pejorative to describe Obamacare without realizing that he supports a form of social medicine, medicaid.

EXAMPLE 2

How about this one? As you can see, on the left side of this car's bumper is a Obama '08 campaign sticker, while on the left is a sticker that says "No Taxation (representation or otherwise)." If you pay attention to politics you would know that Obama is not opposed to taxation. Regardless that he never expressed a desire to raise taxes for those in the lowest brackets, or that he stated he felt the rich should "pay their fair share," the president is certainly in favor of taxation. Advertising a promotional campaign bumper sticker for a politician who is in favor of taxation while also advertising the belief that people should not be taxed is inconsistent with regards to taxation.

 It is only when dissonance is pointed out or realized that cognitive dissonance occurs. When dissonance is pointed out by another individual, often the beholder becomes upset and defensive. At this point an individual will often rationalize away, ignore and deny any new information. It is this illogical thought process that is called cognitive dissonance.

This is the minds way of avoiding disequilibrium.  Remember, the mind strives for constancy. By shutting out what others have to say, and avoiding people or messages that conflict with our strongly held assumptions, our mind doesn't have to become troubled with changing our views or assumptions.

Mark Twain famously captured a situation that leads to cognitive dissonance in the phrase......

"Never argue with stupid people, they will drag you down to their level and then beat you with experience."

What Mark Twain is comically warning us about is that often times we have strongly held beliefs based on assumptions and act as if those that do not share our views are stupid. When finally confronting these "stupid people" we may end up realizing they know things that we ourselves do not. This is where we can either become defensive and rationalize our assumptions, or we have the opportunity to reexamine them and reach truth.

Anger often precedes cognitive dissonance. So as Cosmotheists we must be in control of our emotions. Not vice versa. Cosmotheists are seekers. We are constantly looking to discover truth. This cannot be done when we become upset when our beliefs are challenged. This is what makes us different from other religions. Our views are not so sacred as to be unquestioned, since dogma is the enemy of truth.

Marcus Aurelius stated it best when he said.......

"If someone can prove me wrong and show me my mistake in any thought or action, I shall gladly change. I seek the truth, which never harmed anyone: to harm is to persist in one's self-deception and ignorance."

Our species is a creature of habit. Change can be difficult. Especially when that change may be at odds with the majority of our friends, family and public. As Cosmotheists we must be constantly vigilant about our strongly held beliefs. Are they the result of objective study and meditation, or are they simply the way in which we want the world to be?

Here are a few last comical examples about Cognitive Dissonance that will help you grab a better understanding of the idea.

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Intelligence, Knowledge, and Wisdom

What are the differences, if any, between these concepts? It seems to be that there is often confusion.  Relatively few people realize that there is a difference. Let us take a closer look at these concepts.

Let's start with intelligence.

Intelligence is the measure of an individual's innate aptitude of critical thinking and rote memory. An IQ test is our best way of measuring aptitude. There are many different types of IQ tests that are composed of  measuring different types of intelligence. Often these tests are collectively aggregated in a battery and given a score of g, or general intelligence. The amount of information a person's mind is able to retain varies from each individual.

Examples:

EXAMPLE 1: ROTE MEMORIZATION - If we were to give an individual a string of two digit numbers and ask him to repeat them in the same order, how many two digit numbers would the individual be able to memorize? How many would he be able to memorize backwards? How about ten minutes later?

EXAMPLE 2: Critical Thinking - Can an individual rotate 3-dimentional images? If so, to what complexity?

Studies have revealed that there is only so much that can be done to boost an individuals performance on an IQ test(see Arthur A. Jenson, How Much can we boost IQ & Scholastic Achievement?). Intelligence as measured by IQ is a measure of the processing speed and power of an individuals brain. Not much different then measuring the processing speed and strength of a computer. There may be external things that we can do to slightly boost the computers performance(keeping the temperature cool, dusting out the tower, not tossing the unit around), but the majority of the performance depends on the hardware and software being used.

Knowledge is a familiarity or accumulation of facts with certain subjects or activities. In contrast with intelligence, it does not require the beholder to have a high measure of aptitude in order to have gained a sizable amount of knowledge on any range of subjects. The intelligence level of an individual may however limit the rate at which an individual obtains knowledge. An individual with a high intelligence may lack knowledge on a range of subjects that other individuals have acquired. As a result, this may place an individual with a high intelligence at a disadvantage relative to others as a result.

EXAMPLE: Through a combination of years of work in the field of construction and a series of classes, a foreman has acquired a high level of facts and information relative to his field of construction. It is the accumulation of this information that we call knowledge.

Wisdom is the ability take knowledge from one's own experience or the experiences of another and apply it to real life. It does not require a particularly high intelligence, though people often perceive that those who wield it do. It is probably true that those with a high aptitude may display wisdom on a higher average as compared with others. Nevertheless, an accumulation of knowledge will definitely allow one to to act in a wise manner more often regardless of his aptitude because he has the tools of facts and information that he can reference before taking action.

Having a greater understanding and insight into these concepts, perhaps you can try to identify them in yourself and others. We may notice that some individuals might not have a particularly high aptitude, but what actions can be taken to counter that? Acquiring a large amount of knowledge will make it easier for us to take wise action by referencing accumulated facts. This process will lead to better results in our lives. Not just for ourselves, but for our families, communities, and societies.

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Projection

Projection is a psychological term used to describe a lapse of judgement in the human thought process. Logical fallacies are important for us as Cosmotheists to identify. It allows us to categorize fallacious thinking in others and avert such illogic ourselves. I have decided to write about projection  because the perfect example was displayed in a recent advertisement for an "anti-racist" organization that I had recently seen. If you have not already seen the video, please watch it. We can then discuss the problem with its message. 

(Click here if you cannot see video)

I know that right now you are thinking that if a group of White people had created an ad making similar stereotyped generalizations of another group while mocking them that they would be called racist. Yet if the people who created this video were challenged and called racist themselves, they would simply shrug it off and say that it is not possible for Black people to be racist. That "racism" or "institutional racism" is when "the dominant social group in power oppresses a minority." This is a more recent definition of the word racism that has been used to justify antiwhite racism, as well as to blame Whites for the differences in socioeconomic status and encarceration rates among racial groups.

So what is projection?

Projection is attributing attributes to others that you are unwilling to accept in yourself.

In this case, the children are talking about how they are "over racism" while simultaneously making racist, antiwhite statements. They are attributing racism to Whites, without realizing that they are the ones who are racist. It is unfortunate that these children are being taught this type of behavior at such a young age, and those making this video are the ones truly at fault. 

Lets look at another video that shows projection in action.

(Click here if you cannot see video)

 

Directly after this man was attacked by latino protestors this journalists asked him if he is "racist" for protesting the amnesty of illegal aliens. It's obvious that the Latino woman is only asking the gentleman if he is "racist" because he is White. There is nothing racist about desiring laws to be followed. She would not be asking him the question if she did not truly believe that he was(though this may be debatable), or if he was another ethnicity. Her loaded question was in and of itself where she exposed her own racism. When called out on her antiwhite racism by his black friend, she immediately recoils and tries to escape being exposed from her own hatred. Both of these videos show how words that were intended to expose bigotry are now used as weapons by bigots.What is worse is that these individuals likely do not even acknowledge that they are acting in such a manner. They have been so conditioned to believe that Whites are inherently racist that it justifies their demonization of White people.

It is critical for us as Cosmotheists to have an understanding of what projection is. Illogic is the enemy of the Cosmotheist. It denigrates and destroys. The more it seeps into a society, the less society can function. If we are to meet the enemy, we must first know what he is and how he operates. It would be impossible to conquer an enemy otherwise. 

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What is Truth?

We live in a natural world. All we see around us is the result of natural phenomena(an event or occurrence). These phenomena have values and properties that follow laws particular to their nature (quantum mechanics is beyond the scope of what we are discussing here). If an object holds value, it can be measured and predicted if we have the proper instruments at our disposal. The scientific method is our means to discover the actions (or reactions) of individual values and is the premise(the philosophical foundation of an argument) of how we as Cosmotheists discover truth.

Since everything in nature has consistent values, nature is universal(applied in all cases). What applies under a simple or complex algorithm(a step by step procedure) applies if the exact same algorithm is set in motion again anywhere in the cosmos. Most people are aware of these principles, but never stop to truly appreciate them. The law of universality in nature is the greatest gift ever to be bestowed upon mankind. It is also those very laws that created him from the dust of the earth.

We define truth as reality. As Cosmotheists, we do not acknowledge the extra or supernatural. For it is out of the range of nature. It cannot be seen. It cannot be measured. Therefore, it cannot be known. For is not of reality, it is not of the Whole.

By eliminating the imposition of the supernatural into the realm of reality, we eliminate what is not real in our premise. I am sure you are curious as to why we have taken such time and detail to explain something that seems elementary. There is nothing more imperative then the premise of our philosophy. If the foundation upon which we built is at fault, then that which comes after will not withstand. Since we have now established the most fundamental part of our premise, we can now turn our focus to reality, or nature, for truth.

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