The prison of our beliefs and how to escape it

"In The Believing Brain, Michael Shermer argues that "belief-dependent realism" makes it hard for any of us to have an objective view of the world

You are rushing to the airport when a tree falls and blocks the road, causing you to miss your flight. Hours later you learn the plane has crashed and all its passengers are presumed dead.

If you are religious, you may interpret the falling tree as a miracle, evidence that a loving God is watching over you. If you aren't, you will likely see it as an incredibly fortunate fluke. These two interpretations of the same event exemplify Michael Shermer's view that our beliefs come first and our explanations - or rationalisations - follow.

He dubs this concept "belief-dependent realism", though it is far from a new idea: philosophers of science have long argued that our theories, or beliefs, are the lenses through which we see the world, making it difficult for us to access an objective reality.

So where do our beliefs come from?"
via CultureLab/read more