True Believers: An Explanation

Too great not to blog!

TRUE BELIEVERS - Whither atheist, agnostic, or theistically minded, a true believer is one who defends his cause rather than the truth. True believers tend to be "dogmatic", closed minded, irrational, or normatively (emotionally) charged rhetoricians. The epistemological concern with True Believers is that they have no coherent or consistent organization to their philosophy. In short, they argue immaturely. Convinced of the correctness of their cause, they operate under an ends-justify-the-means aegis and use inconsistency and ad hoc arguments to support their cause - i.e., favoring empirical research when such research is supportive, and ignoring it otherwise, always with the overriding utilitarian thought that the "truth" of their position justifies a "fluctuating" epistemology.

In psychology the cause behind this childish mindset is referred to as identity foreclosure. Identity foreclosure occurs when one simply accepts the belief systems of authority figures, surrendering the personal responsibility of a critically examination of what one should believe, through earnest study of other perspectives and self discovery.

The lost irony on True believers is the harm they do to their cause - for even if their beliefs are true, their epistemologically unsound arguments are deleterious to open minded debate. It's not enough that your conclusion is correct, you also must have a valid argument leading to your conclusion.

Saint Thomas Aquinas wisely pointed out that if God exists, no arguments against his existence should be feared. In fact, he held that even sensationalistic (empirical) evidence should prove His existence - since 1) God created all natural phenomena, and 2) since truth cannot be contradictory. Following Aquinas' lead, all debaters should embrace all facts involved in an issue, and face them head on.
AMEN!