If you're going to be unreligious, it's likely going to be due to reflecting on it and finding some things that are hard to believe.
Interpretation
This quote suggests that skepticism towards religion often arises from deep reflection and rational questioning.
Daniel Kahneman highlights that a shift away from religious belief typically stems from a critical examination of religious tenets, leading individuals to grapple with elements of faith that may seem implausible. This introspection can be a significant step in understanding personal beliefs and aligning them with one’s rationality and experiences.
In practice
During a debate on belief systems, I referenced Kahneman's quote to emphasize the importance of critical thinking.
We think, each of us, that we're much more rational than we are. And we think that we make our decisions because we have good reasons to make them. Even when it's the other way around. We believe in the reasons, because we've already made the decision.
The average investor's return is significantly lower than market indices due primarily to market timing.
Banks are run by executives, and executives protect themselves, and that does not always mean that banks are going to behave rationally.
Laziness is built deep into our nature.
Through some combination of culture and biology, our minds are intuitively receptive to religion.
You are more likely to learn something by finding surprises in your own behavior than by hearing surprising facts about people in general.
It is an impressively arrogant move to conclude that just because you don’t like something, it is empirically not good. I don’t like Chinese food, but I don’t write articles trying to prove it doesn’t exist.
Hill House, she thought, You're as hard to get into as heaven.
So often we think that Allah only tests us with hardships, but this isn't true. Allah also tests with ease. He tests us with na`im (blessings) and with the things we love, and it is often in these tests that so many of us fail. We fail because when Allah gives us these blessings, we unwittingly turn them into false idols in the heart.
I am concerned for the security of our great Nation; not so much because of any threat from without, but because of the insidious forces working from within.
In you, as in each human being, there is a dimension of consciousness far deeper than thought. It is the very essence of who you are. We may call it presence, awareness, the unconditioned consciousness.
Responsibility is the price every man must pay for freedom.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.