Do we think & communicate (almost) entirely in fabricated stories?

[rousseau]

An example - we might tell a child they cant watch TV because it's broken. Or if they lie their nose will grow. Again referring back to the OP "They're eating the Dogs"

Not sure if the first 2 are good examples (just trying to keep a kid safe without having to over explain)

The irony is this: I'm looking for a narrative as to why we say and believe things with no evidence, often in the face of objective facts.

The people who believe it do have evidence, though. It's just not what you and I would consider credible evidence

Eternal and oblivious positivity wipes the floor with strong intelligence when it comes to producing kids and evolution. People who have a mental make up that is motivated to produce children make up a large part of our world. I think that largely takes a small dose of delusion.

An example - we might tell a child they cant watch TV because it's broken. Or if they lie their nose will grow. Again referring back to the OP "They're eating the Dogs"

Not sure if the first 2 are good examples (just trying to keep a kid safe without having to over explain)

The irony is this: I'm looking for a narrative as to why we say and believe things with no evidence, often in the face of objective facts.

The people who believe it do have evidence, though. It's just not what you and I would consider credible evidence

Eternal and oblivious positivity wipes the floor with strong intelligence when it comes to producing kids and evolution. People who have a mental make up that is motivated to produce children make up a large part of our world. I think that largely takes a small dose of delusion.

And there is no anti-realist to have without the reality smacking you upside the head at every turn.

Poli made a good point, that being that the more one learns of a given subject the more one realizes how much more there is to learn. That's called Dunning Kruger. I only think I'm not so smart about something if I know a lot about it. But I'm more the genius the less I actually know.

And having this discussion really isn't any different than when we were much younger having a discussion about green ghosts on Mars. We know there aren't really green ghosts on mars so we move onto to something just as intellectually stimulating but that encompasses our knowledge of what is and what isn't. The brain enjoys it all. That's why there are evangelicals who believe in a Big Flood.

Maybe we know that there are no green ghosts on mars, but if my lizard brain was feeling anxiety and fear about something that is not completely clear to me, I may sub in the green ghosts from mars for that thing I can’t name.

There can be different reasons why I can’t name it, most likely I’m just ignorant, or it could be unknown as of yet, or I’m ashamed to be honest about it. For example I may say that public education is turning kids gay against their will, instead of just admitting that I’m a homophobe. I need to create a narrative that gets the feeling across to others. I can’t really directly say you should be a homophobe too, but with this emotional narrative I can make someone FEEL the same as I do.

This isn’t anything new or surprising- Im just starting think this is just how/why we believe what we do, and that we do it with a majority of our communication

I’ve seen countless articles about “Why do people vote for Trump” or “Why do people believe in gods” or “Why do people believe in 911 conspiracies” or Bigfoot, qanon, flat earth, anti-vax and on and on

It’s like a unified theory for all of this stuff.

I’m not quite neurotypical so I obsess over such things. I need to know what inside the black box.

This is the closest I’ve come up explain odd beliefs

I'm not sure if my post above got through, but the point I was trying to make is that from the perspective of evolution this is how people's brains should work. So you're framing it from the perspective that this type of thinking is problematic, only because it's obviously better for the group if people are better at understanding. But evolution doesn't care about what's best for the group, all it cares about is that the individual has a mindset that is likely to produce children.

This is maybe a tier above the psychological explanation you're looking for, but all that is to say that human cognition working in the way you describe is a feature, not a bug. Psychology notwithstanding, people who think like this are well adapted from the perspective of evolution. Which gets us into the weeds of our illusion that humanity is supposed to progress in some meaningful way.

Given that our cognition works like this, I'd guess that for those without strong intelligence we generally land on the metabolically easiest explanation that satisfies our curiosity. If we don't know how to think critically, then it's a lot easier to just say [x] is true until the day we die, then have to actually question and think about our entire worldview. Which takes work. And on the other side of this, when we're openly hostile to new information (because it makes us work), people who can correct our worldview generally don't even try.

 

[T.G.G. Moogly]

I'm not sure if my post above got through, but the point I was trying to make is that from the perspective of evolution this is how people's brains should work. So you're framing it from the perspective that this type of thinking is problematic, only because it's obviously better for the group if people are better at understanding. But evolution doesn't care about what's best for the group, all it cares about is that the individual has a mindset that is likely to produce children.

This is maybe a tier above the psychological explanation you're looking for, but all that is to say that human cognition working in the way you describe is a feature, not a bug. Psychology notwithstanding, people who think like this are well adapted from the perspective of evolution. Which gets us into the weeds of our illusion that humanity is supposed to progress in some meaningful way.

Given that our cognition works like this, I'd guess that for those without strong intelligence we generally land on the metabolically easiest explanation that satisfies our curiosity. If we don't know how to think critically, then it's a lot easier to just say [x] is true until the day we die, then have to actually question and think about our entire worldview. Which takes work. And on the other side of this, when we're openly hostile to new information (because it makes us work), people who can correct our worldview generally don't even try.

Bravo! This is it! From that evolutionary standpoint this is exactly how our brains DO work. From an evolutionary standpoint this is exactly how we should expect and observe our brains to work. The important thing to know is that this is NOT how all our brains work, an observation about our species that should be obvious to anyone who's brain works like rousseau just described.

I have had and continue to have the unfortunate privilege or parenting a child who is manic unipolar with additional anosognosia. What a window into our human past his behavior reveals. I am convinced today that our species would probably never have survived without such a condition, a condition that is out of place in today's human environment and is clearly presently selected against. But that is how evolution works. It doesn't simply turn pages.

But if I am unable for whatever reason to appreciate how evolution works and how it has evolved a human brain I may instead invent fairytale religious narratives and totally irrational responses to explain and deal with present human behavior. There is certainly sufficient evidence to set aside such fairytale narratives for a human brain that possesses such a capability to sufficient degree. And that's a whole 'nother subject completely, namely, being able to observe and appreciate the degree of bipolar behavior that occurs in individuals of our species that are not clinically certifiable. Some of us perceive and live in a limbic brain. Some of us live and perceive in a cortical brain. And some of us live somewhere in between, but visiting different stages throughout our short lives.

 

[rousseau]

I'm not sure if my post above got through, but the point I was trying to make is that from the perspective of evolution this is how people's brains should work. So you're framing it from the perspective that this type of thinking is problematic, only because it's obviously better for the group if people are better at understanding. But evolution doesn't care about what's best for the group, all it cares about is that the individual has a mindset that is likely to produce children.

This is maybe a tier above the psychological explanation you're looking for, but all that is to say that human cognition working in the way you describe is a feature, not a bug. Psychology notwithstanding, people who think like this are well adapted from the perspective of evolution. Which gets us into the weeds of our illusion that humanity is supposed to progress in some meaningful way.

Given that our cognition works like this, I'd guess that for those without strong intelligence we generally land on the metabolically easiest explanation that satisfies our curiosity. If we don't know how to think critically, then it's a lot easier to just say [x] is true until the day we die, then have to actually question and think about our entire worldview. Which takes work. And on the other side of this, when we're openly hostile to new information (because it makes us work), people who can correct our worldview generally don't even try.

Bravo! This is it! From that evolutionary standpoint this is exactly how our brains DO work. From an evolutionary standpoint this is exactly how we should expect and observe our brains to work. The important thing to know is that this is NOT how all our brains work, an observation about our species that should be obvious to anyone who's brain works like rousseau just described.

I have had and continue to have the unfortunate privilege or parenting a child who is manic unipolar with additional anosognosia. What a window into our human past his behavior reveals. I am convinced today that our species would probably never have survived without such a condition, a condition that is out of place in today's human environment and is clearly presently selected against. But that is how evolution works. It doesn't simply turn pages.

But if I am unable for whatever reason to appreciate how evolution works and how it has evolved a human brain I may instead invent fairytale religious narratives and totally irrational responses to explain and deal with present human behavior. There is certainly sufficient evidence to set aside such fairytale narratives for a human brain that possesses such a capability to sufficient degree. And that's a whole 'nother subject completely, namely, being able to observe and appreciate the degree of bipolar behavior that occurs in individuals of our species that are not clinically certifiable. Some of us perceive and live in a limbic brain. Some of us live and perceive in a cortical brain. And some of us live somewhere in between, but visiting different stages throughout our short lives.

I've never thought about the potential survival value of those with bipolar. I can't pretend to know the answer, but I'd be more likely to compare it to autism and associated autistic traits. That is it's not necessarily beneficial for it's own sake, but the mix of genes that can give rise to it aren't a problem enough alone to guarantee that it escapes the gene pool. Who knows.