As someone who was raised Muslim, and has embraced the Christian faith, contrary to what I would have ever imagined before coming to Christ, as well as someone who believes that many conspiracy theories are not just theories but rather real conspiracies, I have grown to learn a lot about human psychology and cognitive dissonance. I have to say that it has been an amazing journey so far, and I wouldn't want to exchange my past for anything, because it has made me who I am today; whether we're talking about the mistakes that I have made or the things that were out of my hands, such as when or where I was born. I plan to share from my own experience and explain how learning about human psychology and cognitive dissonance can help us in discerning the truth.
In psychology, cognitive dissonance is the mental stress or discomfort experienced by a person who simultaneously holds two or more contradictory beliefs, ideas, or values; when performing an action that contradicts existing beliefs, ideas, or values; or when confronted with new information that contradicts existing beliefs, ideas, and values. Generally speaking, those who are familiar with human psychology and cognitive dissonance are a lot more likely to scrutinize their beliefs, ideas, and values by overcoming this mental stress or discomfort and make sure that they are not contradictory. However, simply knowing about human psychology and cognitive dissonance isn't going to guarantee such scrutiny. Unfortunately, we as human beings are very emotional and selfish at the end of the day, and it's almost impossible to detach ourselves from ourselves and our emotions and selflessly seek the truth. Notice that I said it's almost impossible because it's not absolutely impossible otherwise no one would be able to selflessly seek the truth. Looking at my own experience, I personally would have never selflessly sought the truth if I had not faced certain desperate circumstances in my life which led me to give up my emotional and selfish desires for a moment and genuinely and selflessly seek the truth. I can only conclude from my own experience that circumstances of life can indeed lead some of us to ultimately overcome our cognitive dissonance, but that can't be said about everyone. Some people are different and are able to ultimately overcome their cognitive dissonance without going through the desperate circumstances of life but I reckon they must be in the minority!
Having said that, generally speaking from my own experience, it is a very good practice to teach people about human psychology and cognitive dissonance before arguing about what you disagree with. Preparing their mind and psychology to hear what you have to say can play a significant role in their ability to hear you rather than completely brushing you off or shutting down. Proverbs 3:5-6 says, "Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to Him, and He will make your paths straight." To many people this passage sounds like surrendering your rationality and blindly accepting what the Bible says, but that is not what this passage is demanding. God is our Creator, and He knows how our psychology works. He knows that when we get emotional, the logical part of our brain shuts down. The only one who is able to reason perfectly is our Creator because He is perfect and won't allow His emotions to dictate His logic. Given that line of reasoning, what would be more rational for us to do? To put our faith in ourselves or in God? It doesn't take a genius to figure out that the latter is more rational. I myself could only see the truth when I finally gave up on my own strength and decided to completely rely on my Creator to guide my steps and the Creator led me to the Bible. It has been an amazing journey so far and I'm absolutely loving it. Have I found all the answers? Absolutely not. Do I now know everything? Absolutely not. I'm still learning and growing. In fact, expecting to learn everything in our lifetime or expecting to comprehend everything about our Creator and His Creation with our small brain is impossible. But the good news is that we don't have to know everything in order to know what we need to know before we meet God face to face!
It is very important for us to understand that we have an adversary who despises us and is willing to do anything to drag us down with himself. This is not a fiction. This is reality. And if you're skeptic about this reality, you should at least entertain the possibility of it and see if you have any solutions for it, should it be true. Based on my own experience, our adversary loves emotional appeals and emotional arguments because they work! Everyone has a different paradigm and based on their paradigm, different emotional appeals are going to work on them. Once the emotional appeal works on someone, the logical part of their brain shuts down and they will believe everything the adversary tells them. The problem of evil is perhaps one of the most favorite emotional appeals that is used by our adversary. You've probably heard about this emotional appeal as well. It goes something like this: "If God is all-powerful and all-loving, why is there so much suffering and evil in the world?" The conclusion that follows from this emotional appeal will be that God probably doesn't exist or if He does, He doesn't care about us. This emotional appeal is the number one driver behind atheism and naturalism. There is a video at which Dr. William Lane Craig provides an answer for this so-called problem. But even he acknowledges that this answer does not solve the emotional aspect of this problem but rather only the intellectual aspect of it. After all, most people don't want a God who allows evil and suffering. Another emotional appeal that the adversary uses on people is an attack on Christ's identity and divinity. It goes something like this: "If you believe Jesus is God, then you're worshiping a man but God is not a man. If you believe Jesus is the Son of God, you're associating a partner with God and that's blasphemy. Far be it from God to have a son! God is not like us to have kids." The favorite conclusion that follows from this emotional appeal will be that the Bible is corrupted and that Islam is the truth. This emotional appeal works on a lot of people and is the main driver behind Islam which is nothing more than a fraud and not that difficult to intellectually refute it, yet billions of people believe it and are willing to die for it.
So what is the solution? How can we escape an emotional shut-down? It takes practice but I honestly don't think it's possible to completely avoid all the tactics of our adversary without completely relying on God. At the end of the day, we've only been around for a few decades while our adversary has been around for centuries! There are people on the other side of the spectrum who don't seem to let their emotions dictate their logic on the outside, but since their zeal for God is not based on knowledge, they end up doing horrible things in the name of God. Jesus Christ prophecies in the Gospel about such people. In John 16:2, Jesus says, "In fact, the time is coming when anyone who kills you will think they are offering a service to God." With everything that's going on in the world today, we don't have to go all the way back to the first century to read about the intense persecution that Christians have gone through. To recap, our emotions in and of themselves are not bad. In fact, our emotions are a very beautiful part of the Creation. It's only when we allow our emotions to dictate our logic and reasoning that we end up messing up.
