re: #605 Renaissance_Man

Humans are indeed naturally irrational. It's not necessarily about religion or beliefs. We simply place much more stock in our opinions and gut reactions than actual facts. If our opinions and beliefs contradict the facts, we are far more likely to ignore the facts, consider them false, or at the very least view them with a prejudiced eye and look for flaws in them than we are to change our opinions. Far, far more likely.

Our opinions and gut feelings (common sense) are learned. They change with culture and time. You seem to think I'm suggesting adults will suddenly change and go against their upbringing. I'm not, I'm suggesting the way we teach our kids can result in more rational adults.

Humans are not naturally irrational. If we were we would not have attempted to explain the unknown. We would not have developed methods of acquiring knowledge. Even hunter-gatherer level humans thought rationally about how to collect and hunt food. It isn't irrational to believe a god controls rain if you have no other explanation, in fact it provides a structured response to things like droughts, even though the belief is wrong. We consider that response as irrational now in hindsight, because we have a much better grasp of the causes of rain.