There are significantly more people in the world who believe without proof than people who question their beliefs due to psychological, time, effort, cultural, and societal factors.
Psychological: Questioning your deeply held beliefs causes discomfort through cognitive dissonance, where new information challenges previously beliefs.
Being part of a group is more important than standing alone.
Cultural & Societal: You inherit a lot of beliefs from your parents, community, and country where you’re brought up. To question your own beliefs might mean you turn your back on them.
Time and effort: In our modern world, where people are constantly under pressure to be somewhere or get things done, they generally don’t have the time and effort required to critically analyse their beliefs.
Obviously, that’s only the tip of the iceberg, but you get the idea. It’s easier to believe without proof than to ask questions. It’s that concept that businesses exploit. They know that if they project the right message, in the right way, people will believe and purchase their products and services.
Example
The question in the image is a good example of this. Do expensive antioxidants create anything except expensive pee? The answer is one you will have to Google if you’re interested. However, if we look at it logically, the liver and kidneys extraxt toxins very efficiently from the human body. If we wanted to increase their efficiency, then we would Google what foods are good for creating a healthy liver and kidneys? We wouldn’t, or shouldn’t be googling, what supplements will detoxify the human body.
That’s just one of many examples I could have used, I would have put in the answers to those Google searches, but then this would be a very long post before I shared my conclusion.
Conclusion
I believe that the definition of intelligence is not being knowledgeable but the ability to ask the right questions to acquire the correct answers.
P.S. Critical thinking is a skill that’s worth nurturing.
