Why do people believe in things when the body of scientific evidence shows otherwise

[technodad]

This is not intended to be an attack on any denomination of belief. The aim of this thread is to try to understand why people choose to believe things, when there are far more likely explanations and why people choose to not trust the scientific opinion.

I am not particularly thinking about a discussion about religion because clearly "faith", some old books and preaching make a difference there (although, please discuss religion if it is relevant). I am thinking more about things like:

• People don't believe global is happening when the vast majority of the scientific community can provide evidence that it is.

• People believe in ghosts when their existance violates all the laws of physics and pretty much all "ghost events" (if not absolutely all) can be explained without mystery.

• People don't get their kids vaccinated (e.g. MMR), when it is clear that not vaccinating is orders of magnitude more dangerous than vaccinating.

• People think that palm reading, tea leaf reading, etc actually works...

• People believe in "alternative" medicines work, when every "alternative" medicine that actually works is now simple called "medicine"!

The rules are as follows:

1. You can say what ever you like, and I don't care if you insult me.

2. If you post something, you may have someone say something that challenges your deeply held beliefs, so please only post if this is acceptable to you.

3. No one is allowed to complain about anyone being horrible, or arrogant, based upon the fact that people will only post here if they are up for a debate (see 2).

4. There is no 4.

Sorry I know its slightly OT but its Stephen HAWKING.

I just refer to him/them as Stephen Richard Hawdawkins and cover all my bases in one go.

That should be Stephard Hawkdawkins

Everyone has beliefs, but does anyone here claim to believe only in stuff that has scientific meta-analysis to back it up?

I'm sure some of my beliefs are irrational but the biggies, like how/why we exists and all that I can't make a decision without good reason.

A lot of scientific knowledge is just theory. We don't actually know that gravity works the way we are taught at school and major theorists propose, we just assume it as it is most logical and plausible.

Despite that, I have to say, I am a big believer in science and do wonder similar things to you sometimes.

"Is just a theory". HOUSE!

Head are you saying that you can't decide how or why we exist?

I'm referring to questions like what caused the Big Bang and what was before it

A lot of scientific knowledge is just theory
Backed up by a lot of evidence which hasn't been falsified.

(Actually, I'm not sure that I was taught how gravity works at school - and physicists (theorists and experimentalists) haven't put it in a box marked 'done' - real scientists don't settle down with a comfortable set of 'beliefs' , they keep looking deeper.)

Whereas the sort of thing the OP was asking about....

Errol, how does that sentence end?

Everyone has beliefs I don't. Beliefs get in the way of dealing with reality.

To be clear, I'm not talking about "I believe I left my phone in the car" that's not a belief in the sense of faith. Really that means that given the data (when you last saw it etc) the balance of probability is that you left it in the car.

Belief as "I have no reason whatsoever to think this is true, but I'm going to believe it is certainly true anyway" is alien to me and I don't do it. To me there is nothing that is certainly true or certainly false. Although many things are filed under "probably true because of an overwhelming amount of evidence"

Dione - ... tends not to have any sort of credible theory backed up by lots of unfalsified evidence.

Back, everyone has beliefs. Everyone. Most are not religious. But we all have them. In psychology they are classified as: Beliefs about self; Beliefs about others and Beliefs about the world.

Dione you are welcome to believe that :)

As are you to your irrational belief that you have no beliefs.

Actually Back, serious question: do you really think that you have no beliefs?

Is believing in God rational or irrational?

"For example I remember someone telling me that it had been 'scientifically proven' that black people had smaller brains than white people?
My questions 'by whom?' 'how?' and 'with what agenda/motivation?' were of course dismissed ......after all you cannot argue with 'science' right?"

But that person was talking unscientific crap- and you were asking proper scientific questions- questions which are always asked in a proper scientific study. And which are not asked of pseudo-science.

According to Wiki, Scientific Racism was common from the 1880s until WWI.

As I have defined beliefs yes, but I've had many conversations with people who had faith and frequently they had trouble with what they meant by it.

Actually you could probably catch me out. When you are very young you tend to believe everything you are told by adults. Perhaps this is where the adult belief mechanism comes from?

Anyway I've been thinking about this. It may be possible for some unexamined beliefs to be left over from them. Even if this is so - it's just a hypothesis - the moment they come to my attention they will be reevaluated and stop being beliefs. It's not possible for me to know there's no evidence for something yet believe it's true.

It's a constant source of amazement to me that other people can. Doesn't it hurt?

The whole point of science is that it changes when new facts and evidence comes along.

Belief doesn't change- however much evidence and however many facts stack up against it.

Thank you Back. It really never occurred to me that anyone would believe that they had no beliefs. Your answer has been very helpful.

"Thank you Back. It really never occurred to me that anyone would believe that they had no beliefs. Your answer has been very helpful."

Are you implying that people who think they have no beliefs are wrong?

Curlew, of course it's possible to change beliefs. Converts are proof of this. From a psychology POV it can be difficult, but it absolutely can be done.