Comment by Michael4 on Doublethink (Choosing to be Biased) · 2007-09-15T00:58:30.000Z · LW · GW

"Leaving the morality aside, I doubt such a lunatic dislocation in the mind could really happen."

Have you talked to any religious people lately? "Oh, the tornado ripped my neighbors house off the foundations, but we were spared. I guess God was looking out for us!"

Could anyone say that without willfully blinding themselves? Do they really think they are better people than their neighbors, and that God moved the tornado away from their house? Yet you hear stuff like this all the time. And I think they really believe it.

The ability to delude ourselves seems to be one of our main survival traits. Rational people would never take the stupid chances that result in progress. Evolution has favored a species that buys lottery tickets.