The wishful thinking fallacy (more):
- I want P to be true
- Therefore, P is true
Surely people use this fallacy only indirectly, believing in something because they want to but still tying themselves into knots of cognitive dissonance to come up with other reasons for their belief? Surely nobody actually uses the above as an actual argument?
Wrong. One blatant example: the justification used by religious moderates when trying to argue for a universally-pleasant afterlife (even if they're Christian and this directly contradicts the NT). Some specific quotes:
- I was not created in the likeness of a fraud/Your hell is something scary, I prefer a loving God (source)
- I have always felt that God/Goddess Creator was not capable of making mistakes and therefore needed no place to send people who were made perfectly in the first place (source).
The last one is a bit more knotty but even variations of the first (which explicitly uses the word prefer) are quite common. Another example is when someone thinks "people should have the freedom to do X because I want to believe in the goodness of people". Regardless of what X is, come on! (PS. If you don't think wanting to believe in the goodness of people is a ridiculous concept in itself, check this out -- usual disclaimer about head exploding applies)
Seems people are willing always willing to put in the effort to delude themselves, even if the elephant's right in front of them. Not to be some talking head but I place the blame squarely on excesses in trendy relativist enterprises. I mean religious fundies are unwilling to compromise on the objective nature of their crazy truth and so almost never use the fallacy. When I find myself intellectually on the same side as religious fundamentalists something's gone wrong, right?
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“When I find myself intellectually on the same side as religious fundamentalists something’s gone wrong, right?”
Not necessarily. I have more respect for the beliefs of fundamentalists than watered down apologists. For example, if someone tells me that Islam is all about peace and that BinLaden is not a Muslim, I’d argue for BinLaden. He’s the most devout Muslim in the world, truly living his creed. He’s a fucking idiot, but at least he’s honest with himself and his beliefs.
True that, what I meant by “something’s gone wrong” is that so many people on the moderate side of things who should potentially be more approachable tend to go off the deep end intellectually. As in I’d rather they were as intellectually honest as the fundies.
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