Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Lying to myself

Our brains are rationalizing machines.

And the “lie” in the word rationalieze is the particularly dangerous part.

It’s so easy to justify terrible behavior that we sometimes do it without even realizing it. We lie to our self and in the process justify all kinds of crazy stuff.

Some people want to believe there is no God and so they look to science for all the answers. If there is no God then we don’t have responsibility and can do whatever we want. In spite of the fact that all evidence points to a Creator many people rationalize it away.

I used to wonder how people could commit atrocities. From the last century think Nazis and Communists for example. They were people just like us.

How could they have gone so far astray? Rationalizing.

Perhaps they believed the end justifies the means. If you start believing a lie it can lead to some pretty extreme and dangerous behaviors.

If you recognize even in small part that you are rationalizing, let that be a big red flag of warning. Consciously go back to correct principles and stick to them, don’t let the lies inside your head persist.

- DC 28:11-13

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