Knowing in your heart

I was thinking a bit today about the idea of knowing something in your heart. I find this idea to be one of the most difficult obstacles to overcome when trying encourage people to think critically. Especially with regard to the unknowable.

The problem of trying to overcome the perception of something being true because it feels true has many layers. The core of this ideas strength is the fact that it is immune to logical inconsistency. It plays on the idea that our human weakness can allow us to deceive ourselves from what deep down we know to be true. This creates a situation that completely sabotages rational argument in regards to determining the validity of instinct as a means of determining truth. Whenever you make a prediction based upon your instinct or what your 'heart' tells you and that turns out to be incorrect you can immediately claim that you misunderstood or deceived yourself about what your heart was saying and so avoid having your means of acquiring knowledge appear flawed.

This method of reasoning can also be used to dismiss the opinions or augments of others. You can use the line of reasoning that deep down they know their wrong, like a drug addict might feel in the back of their mind they have a problem but can't fully bring themselves to admit it.

It seems this is probably the main method by which people of different faiths can be aware of each other and not be given cause to question their own beliefs. On the face of it it would appear that their is no more justification for one persons supernatural belief system than another. However if your are armed with the premise of the infallible heart you can simply dismiss the beliefs of others by saying deep down they know you're right. They're just trying to rationalize their position because their human weakness prevents them from just accepting what they already know.

Someone with very good instincts is likely to be especially susceptible to the idea of the infallible heart because they will consistently make good decisions without really knowing why they were good. If you combine this with experiences of making perceived bad decisions based on what they perceived to be rational argument that went against their instincts you could imagine that such a person might be quite prone to put instinct above reason.

The feeling of taking an action that goes against your instincts is not a comfortable one and can be truly traumatic if latter you conclude that your instincts were right. There is nothing quite like the regret of betting against your instincts and being wrong to drive you away from reason.