November 29, 2005 version 2 Word formatted version of this document: how_denial_works.doc Whether we like it or not, each of us is constrained by limits on what we can do and feel. To ignore these limits leads to denial and eventually to failure. To achieve excellence, we must first understand the reality of the everyday, with…
A PDF version of this Document: http://goo.gl/JvlTY And Answers to Other “Tough Gospel Questions” in Reply to a Faithful Mormon Scholar’s Defence of Mormonism bob mccue June 20, 2004 Version 3 Nothing falsifies history more than logic. Fransois Guizot Introduction In a June 13, 2004 article on page B7 of the Observer/Faith & Reason section of…
The following is something I will send to my clients shortly. It is still in draft form, but I thought some here might find it useful. [here is a eBook formatted version of the complete letter] Happiness Hypothesis letter – April 2008 Dear *: Re: Jon Haidt’s “The Happiness Hypothesis” I thought you would enjoy…
Some time ago, I wrote my usual long, verbose, redundant, meandering, biased, ad hominem, misleading analysis of how Mormon and other apologetic groups work. It was, of course, described this way by a Mormon apologist. You can find it at http://www.mccue.cc/bob/documents/rs….. For reasons unclear to me, I woke up this morning with a few things to…
The recent psychological literature has noted a striking increase in depression rates at more or less the same time as the psychological community has turned its eye, and pen, toward what makes people happy.[1] It seems, to an extent, that the more aware we become of our potential for happiness, the more depressed we are.…
There is a lot of evidence to suggest that the probability of changing one’s foundational beliefs declines as age advances. There are at least two reasons for this. First, the older we get the less plastic our neural connections become. The second reason, however, is far more compelling from my perspective. Larry Iannaccone explains this…
If this were a Mormon testimony meeting, I would stand up, start with the obligatory “brothers and sisters, I want to bear you my testimony that I know this is the one and only true church on the face of the earth blah blah blahâ€, and then get into what I really wanted to say…
Review of Michael Ruse’s “Mysteries of Mysteries – Is Evolution a Social Construction?†bob mccue July 26, 2005 A friend asked some time ago that I write a review of Michael Ruse’s (“Michaelâ€) book “Mysteries of Mysteries – Is Evolution a Social Construction?†(“Mysteryâ€) and post it to a science list on which we both…
One of the last barriers I had to jump on my way out of Mormonism might be called the “Smart Mormon” hurdle. As one approaches it, the hurdle looks like this: There are so many really smart Mormons who believe Mormonism is “true”. The smart Mormons are much smarter and better educated than I am.…
The following is a summary of some of the principles of social behaviour that make it difficult for insiders to accurately perceive their own behaviour. Cognitive Dissonance Cognitive dissonance is at the root of denial. Fear is at the root of cognitive dissonance. The extent of our fear is determined by our general tendencies in…