The purpose of this paper is to discuss the impact that internalized beliefs has on defending world-views that are difficult to challenge. The focus will be on how the belief in the soul and the afterlife is internalized to mediate the fear of death, to determine the importance of culture in guiding particular beliefs, and to hold onto beliefs despite contradictions that oppose them. Internalized beliefs is defined as learned beliefs that have an onset during childhood and is difficult to remove, once it is engraved. According to Ogilvie and Anglin (Revised 2013), it has the ability to “automatically and effortlessly determine the acceptability and unacceptability of ideas coming their way in terms of whether or not the information supports their footings or poses a threat to their stability”. In other words, once the belief is learned it appears as being instinctive; it is also difficult to challenge these internalized beliefs because they are so deeply rooted into conciousness that it guides life's survival for the future.
First let's examine more specifically the belief of afterlife and how it impacts internalized beliefs of the soul. When people think of death, there is a sense of depression and sadness of this idea of “the end” to their lives. This in turn, causes an imbalance in their internal milieu, leading to anxiety and fear of death. To keep the homeostasis of the internal milieu, there is another force that must counterbalance this fear, by replacing it with comfort. This comfort is founded on the belief in “eternity” of the soul in an afterlife. Whereby, life of the soul continues to live beyond the death of the physical body, thus relieving the anxiety of death, and bringing back the homeostasis of the internal mil...
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...difficult it is to challenge people's preconceived beliefs with contradictory evidence that refutes them, because of the survival of internalized beliefs. No matter how much evidence scientists may have of the soul not existing, people will continue to believe what they initially believe due to fear of new information that poses a threat to it. Therefore, people are least likely to change their worldview beliefs to avoid anxiety and fear, and thus result to culture and religion as a means of comfort.
Works Cited
Becker, E. (1973). The denial of death. New York: The Free Press.
Ogilvie, D., Hamilton, L., Grysman, A. (2012). Chapter 6: Psychology and Scientific Thinking. Soul Beliefs: Causes & Consequences, 115.
Ogilvie D.M., & Anglin, S. (Revised 2013). The Anatomy of Internalized Beliefs. Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey Department of Psychology.
Consider how the effect of a new perspective has been reflected and developed in a literary text or texts you have studied. Discuss the ideas developed by the text creator about the effect an individual’s perspective has on personal beliefs.
Summerized from The Believing Game Peter Elbow “people learned systematic doubting with its logic reasoning and critical thinking, we might forget what believing is. Because the culture’s believing don’t have a methodological discipline, we had to learn to not trust believing and believing can seem a scary word. The believing game is not much honored.”Summerized from The Believing Game Peter Elbow “people learned systematic doubting with its logic reasoning and critical thinking, we might forget what believing is. Because the culture’s believing don’t have a methodological discipline, we had to learn to not trust believing and believing can seem a scary word. The believing game is not much honored.”Summerized from The Believing Game Peter Elbow
The Principle of Credultiy, the Will to Believe, and the Role of Rationality and Evidence in Religious Experience
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in the minds of people that prevent them from understanding (and accepting as true) the
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