Monday, December 31, 2012

Updated Flow Chart


8 comments:

Anonymous said...

So glad to see you are still hobby-horsing on this stuff. I really appreciate your insights and the clarity with which you present them. Thanks for taking the time to do this. There comes a time in people's departure from faith when the distress of the change subsides and enthusiasm for the whole conflict wanes. This is as it should be. Until you reach that point, know that you have been providing valuable perspective for those who are still buried in the social fallout of disaffection from faith. Sites like this provide more than just arguments for a better way of thinking. Work like yours can help some lonely people feel understood.

Unknown said...

This is immensely valuable work. It makes clear just how many factors go into belief -- and why logic alone is rarely effective in countering it.

I was tempted to use the phrase "irrational belief" above. But in the presence of all the contributing factors, there might be a solid argument for belief being rational in that context. Or at least easily "rationalized".

Speaking of your flowchart itself, I really appreciated the graphics for confirmation bias and projection in an earlier version (Slide 10j) -- and I'm curious why you changed them.

At one point in the evolution of the chart, the size of the hallucinations section of the chart was minimized, wasn't it? That was a good idea. With that section at full size, it somehow looks like that factor is over represented.

These are minor quibbles. Overall I truly appreciate the time it took to put this together, and the amount of thought it took develop the underlying logic.

AnticitizenX said...

Thanks for the praise. It is nice to know that I've had a positive influence on some people.

The reason for the change was simply because the graphics needed to evolve with the series. I really had no idea how far I was going to take it, and the chart just kept getting bigger and bigger.

Unknown said...

I too have to thank you for creating this flowchart while explaining the bias that generates and sustains beliefs. I actually left the LDS church six years ago and have been trying to strengthen my understanding of discerning reality since. That flow chart is possibly the scariest thing I've seen. Again, thanks and I highly recommend others to check out you Psychology of Belief series.

Petrini said...

I like your work a lot. It would be great if you could add active links to the flowchart so that a reader can access the youtube videos associated with a particular topic or relationship.

Unknown said...

Still not a flow chart of belief in general, only of false belief.

That's because the flowchart of true belief didn't need to be drawn. It's obvious where true belief comes from -- any chart that covers it will look quite a bit like a flowchart outlining the scientific method.

And adding it to this chart would have confused the issue and made it more complicated than it needs to be.

Unknown said...

It is much simpler. There's no such thing as unjustified true belief. It's just plain belief until its truth is evaluated.

If you want truth, you need justification.

If you just want to believe, then just believe. You'll find truth only by accident if ever, but that shouldn't be an issue, since you're not after truth anyway.

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by the author.