So, this HN thread really made me aware that as much as I prize rationality and intellectualism and reflection, I’m still very much led by my emotions.

I don’t think that having no emotions is the goal. I think it’s actually impossible. But the thing is that we have people who are seemingly purposefully irrational.

I do agree with one commenter that at the end of the chain of reasoning, or perhaps, at the start of the function arguments of rationality, lie values.

Our values change the rational calculus. The calculate the area under the curve so to speak and help us to make decisions.

I don’t know how to be perfectly rational, but I think realizing that using reason itself should be my first recourse, is the first step.

In a way I’ve been doing this for a long time, but was held back by religious, aka magical thinking. In fact you could say that magical thinking is the opposite of rationality.

However, magic as described in fiction has intrinsic rules. For example, there is always a cost, either in some sacrifice to be performed, some goddess to be reverenced, or in the practioner’s own soul.

No, the problem with magical thinking is not with the magic, it is with the emotion that drives the desire for magic. Instead of tackling a problem with smarts and hard work, the desire is for the easy way out.

The trouble with rationally based theories, is that at some point we need to have faith in them. Because we don’t live in a binary world and even if we did that just means the probability is 50/50.

At some point you need to commit yourself to one out of many options, and since randomness is usually not a good strategy, that means you have to believe in something.

Maybe it’s simply in the law of large numbers, or that you always need better than 50/50 odds, or some other heuristic.

This also implies that said belief can be in things that aren’t provable, it’s just a question if the process that led you to your belief was rational or not.

Believing in the trinity because your pastor told you so, is not rational. Believing in the trinity because you’ve studied Middle Platonism thoroughly and believe it best represents the logic of the Godhead is entirely different.

In one sense, how can you fully believe something that you have not investigated from every angle and in every nook and cranny?

Nevertheless, I’m left with the fact that if I want to be more rational, it means thinking about why I believe something.