A Fly in the Cognitive Soup...Do You Need a Mental Tuneup...?

I rarely run into this kind of problem. That`s not to say my thinking is more superior to that of the next man. My cognition adheres to the law of non-contradiction. If I ever find myself holding incompatible or contradicting beliefs I do one of two things to amend the dilemma.

1. Investigate further so that I may reasonably conclude one belief is true and the other belief is false.

2. If I`m unable to conclude one belief is right and the other is wrong, I simply drop both beliefs and admit "I don`t know"

I've met people who say they know exactly what they believe in and where they stand on every imaginable issue -- I'm not one of them. These people say you must take a stand on one side or the other of the fence and they can find all kinds of evidence that is supposed to convince you to believe as they do. I don't know how they manage to do it.

I am forever riding the fence on issues and my belief system. For example: I believe in capital punishment, but I also think there are a lot of people on death row that shouldn't be in prison and I don't want them to die. What do you do with that?

I work on it for a while then I put it on a shelf to work over on a different day. Some things I just decide what is practical and stick with that. Other things can't be worked out that way because they are too complex and I have to decide what is the lesser of two evils, like the war in Iraq.

There are some issues we simply don't have enough information about to form an opinion or a belief. And there are other issues that have so much gray area there is no way a person can take a solid stand one way or the other -- that is where I'm at with the whole God issue.

Sometimes those are the really huge things, like world hunger, global warming, and over population. Some of those things are just out of the scope of a one person crusade. You can only chip away at it one molecule at a time; recycle your bottles, send ten dollars a month to some soup kitchen or foreign country to feed a child, use birth control or encourage someone else to, and for goodness sake, spay and neuter your pets!

In short, when I'm faced with cognitive dissonance, I try to work it using one of the methods mentioned above, but if I can't work it out, I put it on a shelf. Things have a tendency to lose their urgency when they sit and gather dust for a time.

And by the way, there is nothing wrong with riding the fence or taking the middle ground or the path of least resistance. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise.

I usually slide into scientific skepticism first. But at times I do a total re-evaluating of my own system for identifying truth - similar to a BIOS check when you first boot up the PC. Part of that process is getting outside perspective on the subject if I find the problem outside my realm of understanding. In this manner, asking questions in a medium such as this helps.

My objective is to help resolve my understanding of the matter. Is my understanding correct? Is my ideological stance misguided? Is this idea presented to be just a bunch of crap? Or is this one of those situations where two different approaches yields two different answers? Sometimes contradictory results do arrive from different approaches, in which I usually stick to what I know because my system for evaluating truth works for me. Dissonance is cured by knowing that my system does a damn good job of identifying truth based on previous experience. If a truth can be discovered, let the rules of your system play out and see if truth can be attained.

A friend of mine has another rule all together:Don't believe in anything. The minimalist approach solves all conflicts in matters of Metaphysics and he sleeps great at night.

Just because you have a conflict with your self doesn't mean that there is a problem.

If you are on a diet, and you want to eat a piece of cake, youdon't have to be conflict. Just assept that you are doing something that is not in you best self interest.

I knew it was wrong, I did it anyway.

I tend to believe the more ridged your belief system is, the more likely it is to crumble. I find it help if you all a little room for "readjustment."

I usually cause Cognitive Dissonance, which gives me a certain sense of bliss.

The only thing i believe in 100% is that Christ is the one true son of God, other than that everything else is a game.

Well, it certainly makes decision making tricky, but I doubt anyone is completely compatible within themselves...self-doubt can be a constructive tool to make you stay on your toes.

I GET A PANIC ATTACK! Seriously, if my belief system is challenged I panic. Is this weird? I wish I could elaborate more on my answer but that's all that comes to my "tortured little mind". hahaha!

I scrunch up my face like the guy who's your avatar.

what an impressive question! Was there anything else you wanted?