Comforting Lies or Unpleasant Truths?

"People find it easier to ignore the truth"

Almost every one of us faces such situations in life where we prefer to simply ignore the truth in plain sight because it is not acceptable, and we embrace a self made comforting lie to make ourselves feel better. But does that change the reality? No.

When we come across a fact that challenges our core beliefs we cannot accept that. We do everything we can to reject it, ignore it or deny it. But just because we say it’s not true, doesn’t mean it is false. The good thing about truth is, it remains true even if a billion people say it’s false.

A recent example: A self proclaimed God man, Gurmeet Ram Rahim has more than 5 crore followers. Now this self proclaimed saint is behind bars as he has been charged with rape, also there are other accusations on him of murder, castration etc. Those who don’t follow him say that he deserved it for all that he has done. Those who follow him tell a completely different story. They say the decision is wrong and that he has been framed. Now they know that the high court does not make decisions out of thin air, every single evidence and fact is studied and thoroughly investigated before the court passes it’s sentence. But his followers think the decision is wrong (as if it’s a gram panchayat not high court). How can they accept it? Think about it, most of those followers have been following the man since their childhood. He has been worshiped like a god in their families since ages. One could argue that they are living in the dark and they just don’t want to accept that their guru, baba, or whatever they call him, is guilty.

Every person who doesn’t follow him would agree with the above mentioned points. Now, I’m not comparing any religion or person with Gurmeet Ram Rahim, it was just an example of blind faith. But if and when someone questions their religion, god and beliefs, they do the same thing as the above mentioned baba’s followers. They deny and they ignore.

This is called “COGNITIVE DISSONANCE”. Sometimes people hold a core belief that is very strong. When they are presented with evidence that works against that belief, the new evidence cannot be accepted. It creates a feeling that is extremely uncomfortable, called cognitive dissonance.

And because it is so important to protect the core belief, they will rationalize, ignore and even deny anything that doesn’t fit in with that core belief.

Blind faith can never be fruitful or rewarding in any way. All it can be used for is as a tool for deception and fraud by manipulating and exploiting the emotions and reverence of the common man. People let this blind faith spread in their families through generations. No doubt some of them do have self realizations sometimes for a brief moment, as in, why am I doing this? What’s all this for? Do I HAVE to do this? Can’t I be a good and kind human being without blindly following someone? But since they cannot accept the answers they cling on to their beliefs.

Fact is and we all know it, that wanting to believe the best about something, doesn’t make it true. It’s hard and unpleasant to accept a fact that challenges our beliefs but at least it sets us free from our illusions.

Question everything you can. If you don’t find an answer keep looking, but never settle for a self made up answer just because it makes you feel comfortable.

For truth is available only to those who have the courage to question whatever they have been taught.