'why do people refuse to believe things that they dont understand?'

Ok. this is my blog question challenge from my good friend Clairey fairy.. I shall be setting hers soon.. and it shall be most challenging.. have a look at http://the4points.wordpress.com/ if you want to see her response to mine..

So..
'Why do people refuse to believe things that they don't understand?'
I think, mostly, its because people are scared. We have an inbuilt reflex to be wary of things we don't understand, probably from the cavemen days where being anywhere but the shelter of your cave meant impending death. Ok... i'm not very clued up on the whole caveman lifestyle, but bear with me =) As humans we try not to think about things that upset us. For example, my favourite night time topic of thought, death. Its neither pleasant nor avoidable. But, as much as i'd like to not believe it i cannot fail to acknowledge that death is a fact of life, and without death.. well no one would have any motivation to do anything. Death is in fact in my opinion the fuel behind life as we know it. But think about it. How many people wish they were young again? Quite a few. Perhaps this is due to the childish innocence many of us were fortunate enough to experience, when we thought Father Christmas and the Toothfairy existed, and more importantly had no knowledge of the nasties of life, as well as death. Back then we could play with crayons for hours without thinking 'a child labourer in china made these'. Not that we do now, but you understand what i'm trying to say. In our childhood we didn't know about such things as death, hence we couldn't have believed them. And this made us happy, at least until we were faced with harsher realities, that we have no choice but to believe. So then, are we to believe that not believing something makes us happier? Perhaps, perhaps not.

Thinking about things we don't understand just tends to send us into panic mode, and we don't like to believe that things we don't understand exist for that very reason. However, that sort of mentality does neither us nor the world as a whole any good. For example, many people don't understand climate change, in fact perhaps no one does. Many people don't believe in it too. They continue to live the lifestyle they want to, with no thought about the consequences. Its not hard to see the consequences.. we just choose to ignore them because that way we can continue to do as we wish, therefore we attempt to force ourselves to disbelieve the facts in front of us, so that we can fit in with our friends and their hoards of SUV's with what we'd like to believe is a clear conscience.

Ok, that was slightly confused. But take another example, religion. There are some people who are able to overcome the natural doubt response and put their faith in something they don't understand, but can see the reactions caused by their respective heavenly beings. Some things are just unexplainable by anything other than by religion, yet because we don't understand how something like God could possibly exist, we choose to shut ourselves off to these possibilities, and instead class these things as silly coincidences, branding the people who have the insight to believe nothing but 'brainwashed freaks'. But, is not believing better than having faith and believing.. Well, believing in something like religion rids you of other fears: death, hatred, and the fear of taking a stand for something you have faith in. And what can not believing offer you? Well, perhaps you get the satisfaction of calling someone else 'narrow minded' or 'gullible', or whatever other abuse you'd like to throw at someone who's done nothing to you, but for that you pay with fear. Fear of death, hatred, standing apart from others, believing in someone or something you don't understand or have no proof of.. Taking a bigoted view of religion may save you the problem of going against others views, being your own person, but of what gain will it be in the future? Many people convert to religion in old age.. and why is this? Perhaps because, in the face of death, believing in something scary that says you're going to a better place, is easier and less scary than the previously easier to swallow belief that once you die you go nowhere. Or perhaps, when people look back at life, after years of experience, its hard to not believe that something as miraculous as life was created by a force as miraculous as God. Initially the believing may be scary, like taking your first steps, having your first kiss, or asking someone to marry you, but after the initial fears, there's really nothing that can hold you back.

Therefore, when asked to believe something that we don't have conducive proof of, perhaps before opting for the easy way out, we should take a stand, open up the mental boxes we form as false measures of security, and free ourselves.

Not all i have to say. But all i have time for now.

xx