How do bibliolaters cope with cognitive dissonance?

Question

This question is for psychologists who have studied the religious phenomenon. When confronted with the obvious contradictions, mistakes, and immoral actions in the bible (such as murders commited by Moses and Joshua, false prophecies, false statements in Genesis, etc.), how can bibliolaters (people who claim the bible is innerant and who at the same time pick and choose what they want to believe) continue to deny that the bible is a synthetic document riddled with errors and untruths? Do they feel any inner conflict over this denial?

Answer 1

This is a great question. Dealing with cognitive dissonance IS the primary challenge of bibliolaters. With the evidence of the real world around them, how do they resolve the conflict between what they see with their own eyes, and what they've chosen to believe?

The answer is, their brains do not process these conflicts logically. Their establish mental behavior pattern is to dismiss or deny what they see without further analysis, then relate immediately to their chosen beliefs.

To a realist, it seems astounding. But to them it is just what they do...and they end up affirming their beliefs by dismissing whole sectors of real experience.

Personally, I believe the conflict persists. I believe that outside conscious awareness their brains continue to struggle with the conflicts, causing psychological disturbances. This means that more and more of their mental resources must committed to the denial process...not only what they perceive real-time, but the conflicts of past denials...