I was asked what I meant by “cognitive dissonance.”

Click to enlarge: Matt 25:31-46 in the Conservative Bible. This is a parody, of course; it reads: "You were hungry and thirsty, so I eliminated funding for "Meals On Wheels" and food banks. You were a stranger, so I vilified you and demanded that you be deported. You were naked, so I called you an evil liberal who hates conservative family values. You were sick, so I repealed your only hope for obtaining health care. You were in prison, so I tortured you".

I was asked what I meant by “cognitive dissonance” over here >.

I meant the disorientation one feels when reality doesn’t match expectations. This usually results in a refined explanation, but in severe cases can lead to psychological disorders.

For example….

Dark Matter

There’s not enough visible matter in the universe to account for the behavior of the matter we see. There must be something we can’t see. We’ll call it dark matter and start looking for it.

Dad loved me but beat me.

Or my husband, or my pastor, or my child, etc. The expectation is that the people closest to us should care for and nurture us, and when they don’t, we develop insufficient but necessary coping mechanisms, which can range from hurt and and anger to schizophrenia.

My 7th grade teacher killed his wife.[1]

When someone behaves wildly out of character, we look for ways to explain it, not realizing that sometimes there is no explanation except that some people are simply bonkers, go bonkers, or have bonkers thrust upon them.

Jesus died on the cross.

The Messiah can’t die, and so he rose again; cognitive dissonance was one of the factors that shaped the response to Jesus’ crucifixion.[2]

[2013-12-04]

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[1]

True story. Not my teacher, though. I don’t remember his name, but he was a science teacher at Westlake Middle School in Millcreek, PA circa 1976. Mr X hacked his wife to pieces in his garage. He later told the police he thought she was a raccoon. I had gone to Bethel Christian School at that time and made a 3-year detour through private school, so I missed the drama, as tragic as it was, but many of my friends had him as a teacher. I googled it and came up empty.

[2]

St Bartholomew was skinned alive (read more > ). As many commentators have pointed out, the only way to explain how so many early Christians went to their deaths is to regard their actions as sane responses to sincere convictions. And there are of course many enlightened people today that hold those same convictions. Unless we are to assume some a priori lunacy that manifests itself in religious beliefs, we need to take seriously the convictions of serious religious people who otherwise seem to have it pretty much together. Yes, that goes for atheists, too. Acknowledging cognitive dissonance doesn't discount the facts surrounding it.

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