Cognitive Dissonance
Cognitive Dissonance is the psychological pain caused by conflicting beliefs. It is an essential tool for our brain's survival because it helps us correct beliefs that are out of step with reality by giving us anxiety until we change the belief.
Reflective equilibrium describes the state of balance achieved when cognitive dissonance is resolved.
The Core Cognitive Dissonance of Modern Culture
The introduction of science has caused a steady rise in cognitive dissonance for those that believe in religious literalism. The more we know about the universe, the more evidence we find that the literal interpretation is impossible to reconcile. This has caused an increasing number of people to choose a secular belief system, but if these don't make room for the spiritual you end up having dissonance over the fact that you are disconnected from your ancestors and the majority of humanity.
This is why the development of a universalist theology that reconciles science and religion is essential for modern happiness and well-being. It will allow both religious and secular people to consider themselves part of the same in-group, and integrate both views of reality into a single unified belief system.
Hope For a Less Dissonant Future
Cognitive dissonance is why all misinformation, grift, conspiracy, superstition and other malarkey will always be temporary. Granted there's always new b.s. to take its place, but the march of progress is always towards greater truth.
Resolving Core Cognitive Dissonance
Jung identified the search for meaning as a central dilemma behind many psychological issues of the modern era.[1]
This key problem faced in the field of psychology is complicated by the cognitive dissonance resulting from the differences between our religion and spiritual belief systems and the scientific reality of the universe that we exist in. metaculture offers a novel solution.
As science and technology progresses, more and more of what we learn comes in conflict with scripture literalism. There are a few mental strategies for dealing with this:
- Ignore all of it and take a deep dive into superficiality and consumerism
- Adopt the position that science is wrong and literalism is right start a war with reality
- Adopt the position that science is right and religion is wrong and start a war with your culture and your ancestors
- Interpret scripture as allegory to find a belief system where both can be true
4 is the choice that would be best for anyone's mental health due to the obvious cognitive dissonance benefits of resolving such a deep conflict that sits at the very core of our souls. However, most people choose 1, 2, or 3 and this is the root cause of a lot of unnecessary mental anguish in modern society that manifests itself in any number of debilitating disorders and general anxiety. Even those that choose option 4 may not be able to fully resolve these concepts on their own without an example to emulate.
Part of the problem is that religion is the system that humans have constructed to create rituals that harness the placebo effect to regulate our emotions. Without the ability to believe and practice these rituals fully, we no longer experience their benefits. And even if we try our hardest to believe, the placebo effect is still diminished due to the mountain of scientific reality that you are forced to ignore or rationalize.
metaculture will provide a framework for a belief system that provides meaning, and rituals that will allow modern and future people to harness the power of the placebo effect with full awareness of what they are doing. This will allow rituals and sugar pills to replace many expensive and ineffective medicines that can never treat the issue of fundamental conflict between one's core belief system and reality.
Part of this is the internalized ritual of the god concept, which creates a built-in sense of optimism about the world and positive interpretations of all of life's ups and downs.
Cognitive Dissonance Videos
Unless you have a fundamental disagreement with the concept of cognitive dissonance, watching these videos should not increase yours.
Hidden Brain - How We Live With Contradictions
Hidden Brain - Both Things Can Be True