What else?

There are several reasons why people are not rational; staying rational is sometimes tough; is not always mentally accessible, can be depressing …. Then should it be considered abnormal when we sometimes act irrationally? My answer is NO! Or would it be even better if we always acted rationally? Again my answer is NO! First of all, like any other thing that I know, rationality is not absolute; neither is irrationality. Second, as I mentioned in some of my previous posts (e.g. here), we are not rational animals. This simply means that our thoughts and behaviors are naturally influenced and even regulated by a variety of irrationalities such as our emotions, and our past experiences. There is no rational reason why someone loves a woman, or why someone fears cockroaches. Having said all of these, I still believe that “under some circumstances” we‘d better be rational and it’s BEST to be rational for obvious reasons. To fasten my seatbelt while driving is a rational act; why? Because STUDIES have shown that doing so would significantly reduce the mortality rate if an accident happens, AND it doesn’t cost me anything or doesn’t hurt that much! if I fasten my seatbelt. So before newer and better studies will POSSIBLLY show the opposite results, a rational person fastens his or her seatbelt. And here is a key point; I met some people that for every scientific evidence argue that “nothing is absolute; who knows; maybe in the future other studies will show the opposite and …” My immediate type of response to such statement (note: there is nothing wrong with the statement itself; what is wrong is the conclusion that they want to make) has evolved during these years. Five years ago I would reply with such excitement and would act as if the whole world is in prompt danger! Later on, I realized that I went nowhere by that type of argument, so I just shortly expressed my disagreement. This strategy didn’t work either, because most of the time the other person wanted to start an argument! Now what I do is simply saying “that’s right!” and that’s it!

I believe that rationality can be learned of course, but it cannot be taught.

Now I have some topics and groups of people on my “no-argument list”! including: chauvinists, racists, topics regarding all sorts of superstition (after her brain MRI scan, one of my subjects told me that she had been FEELING her “aura” during the scanning session; and now you know what my answer looked like!), and also if someone rejects an established scientific evidence (e.g. chemotherapy for treating cancers) in favor of any old-world or new-world shamanisms (e.g here).

To be continued …