Beliefs Before Reasons

As much as we’d all like to believe that our beliefs are rooted in reason, that’s simply not the case.

Most of our beliefs come first, and then we seek facts to back them up.

Beliefs come before reasons.

It is very rare to use facts alone to change our beliefs.

Don’t believe me? Go to facebook and look at your newsfeed. You’ll see countless people posting articles that they feel are the smoking gun for what they believe. You’ve done this yourself at one point in time, whether on facebook or in some other part of life.

What’s fascinating is to go through the process of intentionally questioning a belief you hold and if it proves worthwhile, convincing yourself that you’re “wrong” and thus changing what you believe.