Why are people to lazy to seek their own understanding, rather than adopt others opinions as there own?

Question

no matter what your religion or faith, even if you are an atheist, don't you think that you owe it to yourself to do your own homework and go about it honestly? Why let someone else fill your mind with their opinions, do the research and learn about it for yourself.

What are your thoughts about this suggestion?

Answer 1

My opinions are mine. I adopt no ideas.

Answer 2

"Now the mind is a very peculiar instrument in that once it picks up an idea from any source, from the worst possible source, once a mind picks up an idea, it tends to become possessive over it. It tends to say, 'Ah, this is my idea.' Then it goes to the next stage and says, 'This is not only my idea, but my life depends upon following it, believing it, protecting it.' And regardless of how nonsensical, how self-destructive these ideas may be, human beings will fiercely protect them thinking - listen to this please - thinking that they are protecting their own life when all it is is picking up a collection of ideas that have made them what they are today."
--Vernon Mowisdom

What is it about a belief (especially a religious belief) that causes people to be unable to have a rational unemotional discussion about the validity of that belief? The normal reaction to any attempt to confront a strong ingrained belief, even those based upon nothing other than pure repetition (or those acquired without any independent thought) is to reject any alternative idea without much (if any) consideration. “No, no, I don’t want to hear it” or “what I believe is true and that’s final”, are the boiler plate responses often given. Alternatively, some people offer up their beliefs like dirty laundry. Suddenly they’re shaving their heads in some cult drinking Kool-Aid. The reason I believe each of these phenomenon’s occur is basically the same. In the first instance your biological programming tells you instinctively to defend your position (if you are so genetically inclined). You can not accept rational thought as your pack mentality programming clicks on and tells you to reject any other position and defend yours ("must reject and defend"). In the second instance, your submissive program (as that may be alternatively dominant in your genetic make up) tells you you must follow this new exposed point of view. To be able to overcome these programs and offer your open mind is difficult to varying degrees based upon your current situation (did your granmother just die?), your genetic make-up (random really), your age, your experiences (or environmnet) and your intelligence. For instnace, the younger you are the more easily you are influenced - you are often a blank slate without a belief one way or the other. Similarly, the less intelligence you have the easier you are influenced. So basically a belief operates like a kind of virus - seeking out the weak, moving from the dominant in the world to the submissive in the world. When it encounters and experiences a grounded intelligent person who can control his animal tendency to either be dominant or submissive, it get’s a real examination under a microscope and dissected toward a rational acceptance or rejection.

Answer 3

Thank you! to all of you Hello! you must wake up!
I have studied Buddhism Hinduism Christianity also what i am now born Muslim i did not just stop not think nor did i allow any thing to be alright with me and i don't like claims which are false. or bold outrageous miracles that makes no since nor for any cause did there need be one so you see I have much knowledge on the 3 and cant stand the one! (i wont tell which one is the most silliest and which one tells the most lies and claim a man to be that which he is not nor ever stated he was now all me please!
i also studies Judaism and found a great deal of knowledge in the Torah and i asked every one to read this book it is amazing!
i also must tell the many there are more than 80 religions right now on the face of the earth and just so the many know Christianity is new not the original nor valid!

Answer 4

As an atheist I don't take what others say as absolute truth, however I do listen and ponder what others say, it is impossible to experience everything in a lifetime, someone will always know more about something then you.

But as for religion, they go to church, mass or whatever and are told what to believe by their leaders.

As an atheist I don't believe that the scientists are all knowing and are likely wrong on at least a few things on their theories, however it is stressed that they are just that, theories.

So I do think for myself. Good question though, many people don't think for themselves, and there are atheists who don't also.

Answer 5

I completely agree. But, don't say people in general. Im an A student in the eight grade with a 4.0 average, I don't accept doing other people's homework but i prefer to help them instead. I never ask anyone to do my homework. But i see what you mean and ya, its completely wrong. They do it not because they are lazy, but because people in general love to take things the easy way. I like taking stuff the hard way because my parents always give me everything i ask for. Also, people do that because they don't realize that it hurts them instead of helps them. If your a kid or a teenager(Im personally a teen), I came up with a little phrase, "Ten Years of Fun = Sixty of Pain"

Answer 6

i agree......does that make me lazy?

perhaps original thought is seldom spoken because there is nothing left to think that is original...perhaps throughout all of human history, all our thought have already been thunk...therefore, there is no original thinking that is possible.

And then there is the fact that we live in a world where we are overloaded with images and information, as well as a certain level of convenience and so we don;t have to think too much to survive, or to prove ourselves, to be entertained. First there is experience. That experience becomes knowledge. Knowledge applied becomes wisdom. We hardly have experiences...we are all about reality TV, hollywood movies, Internet games and websites (i am guilty too). We lack true experience therefore we lack wisdom and original thought.......i guess.

Answer 7

What should we research that would not include the opinions of others? There is no self made thought, they are all products of our interaction with the environment, including other people.

Answer 8

Correct, as far as I can tell. True enlightenment comes through understanding, and if you accept others' search as your own, you haven't been through any process of understanding it.

That applies to other things besides faith - truth, justice, love, and all the great virtues.

Answer 9

There is nothing new under the sun, we are but vapor. Seek THE truth, there is only one true understanding. That is that we all must live and die. Live so that your next home will be better than this one.

Answer 10

I was once called into a tent, my eyes have been open, I go forward, not backward as a child, but to be my own adult, than that child.
Is Jesus god? That miss interpretation.

Answer 11

Ummm....that's what a lot of us do. I have and continue to research and learn about the religions myself.