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Biases. Everyone has them. They can be frivolous ( Preferring the taste of vanilla to chocolate, for instance. In which case you're wrong, by the way. ) up to the significant. ( Believing followers of your religion are good and everyone else is evil. ) Every person has a large variety of different biases, and often every decision is coloured by at least several different biases, if not more. They affect every different aspect of our lives, and in many ways they define who we are, from our tastes in music, clothing and food choices to our very moral proclivity.
They also come in a variety of different strengths, from extremely weak ( Enjoying vanilla ice cream more, but being perfectly happy with chocolate and even willing to explore flavours beyond that. ) to extremely strong. ( The murder and enslavement of people of different faiths that is common to fundamentalists of many religions. ) They also come in a variety of different importances. Some don't matter at all ( Your choice of ice cream doesn't effect anyone except you. ) while others can change the world. ( Adolf's biases against Jews, homosexuals, gypsies, and so forth lead to millions being brutally butchered, in the same way some extreme Hutus biases against moderate Hutus and Tutsis lead to hundreds of thousands being slaughtered. )
We also have different sources of these biases. Some, such as our biases towards our mate's gender(s), can be formed primarily genetically, while others such as our desire for chocolate can form over a lifetime of reinforcing behaviour and ideas. Others can be a combination of both, such as merely a genetic inclination towards one thing with nurturing behaviour reinforcing this inclination. This means that some biases are inherently part of who we are and there is very little we can do to change them. Others are completely within our power to change, but it will take a long time, a lot of introspection, and a lot of effort on our part.
Growing up, I was in a mildly religious household. We were Christians, but only culturally so. Our religion wasn't a huge place in a our lives. Over time, particularly during my teenage years, I slipped further down the path of Fundamentalism. That path suited my biases and predispositions at that time, many of which I wasn't aware of. I was accutely aware of other people's biases, and exploited them ruthlessly to convert people to my church and gain more power within my church. Because I was unaware of my own biases, I did a lot of bad things to a lot of good people. After I managed to break out of the church, thanks in large part to the help of people around me, in particular an atheist I met that was just as fiery and fierce as I am that was willing to go toe to toe with me and meet every cutting insult with one of his own while we debated topics ranging from theology to biology to philosophy to geology, I was given a second chance at living life, and I started by exploring my own biases.
Questions like why do I believe this, why do I believe that, why is this acceptable, and so forth became a large part of my introspection. I studied the results of my actions and put every part of my mind I could find under the harshest, most critical scrutiny I could muster. I spent time delving heavily in my holy book, as many versions as I could get my hands on, and the holy books of other religions. I went digging through tomes of philosophy, and papers on psychology, and devoured page after page after page of work dedicated to morality and ethics. I discovered what my biases were and through years of hard work and introspection I have managed to curb or remove the worst ones, and can account for many of the others. This isn't something that should be applauded though by any stretch. Why do I say this?
We should all be doing this.
Probably the most amazing thing about the internet and the written word is we can find information from billions of people, and we have access to thoughts and ideas and concepts that are both foreign and conflicting with our own beliefs and biases. In those areas where we haven't had a chance to form a bias, this isn't a problem as we can just tack it on to our belief structure. In cases where there is conflict though, we can outright reject an idea without giving it thought. It can carry through into our personal lives and interactions, and can display itself in racism and sexism and hatred of those with different sexual orientations from our own. We often reject sound evidence in favour of our personal prejudices.
I touched upon this briefly in my article dealing with the validity of having an opinion. The thing is, if we take the time to learn our prejudices, we can account for them. I am personally prejudiced against claims of the supernatural, and it shows through quite a bit. I am aware of this prejudice though, and as such I can apply some efforts to counter it by instead of merely dismissing the claim out of hand, instead asking for evidence, and doing my best to give that evidence fair evaluation, including sending it to others who are more knowledgeable on the particular claim and asking for their evaluation of the evidence presented.
And this is why it’s important to examine and know our own biases. If we never take the time to look at how we think and why, we can never give any new or conflicting idea the honest evaluation it deserves.
