It is not a remarkable use of rationality to find justifications for opinions we already have or which reassure us. More impressive would be to use rationality to reach conclusions that discomfit ourselves.
nytimes.com/2021/09/29/boo…
nytimes.com/2021/09/29/boo…
Some folks like to celebrate the use of rationality to reach uncomfortable conclusions, but the discomfort usually seems to be for other people.
Of course others might want to find racism even where it isn't. That's why rationality is hard. The test of whether a conclusion makes us feel good or bad about ourselves is far from conclusive, but it's a reasonable first thing to check.
My life, and those of people like me, have doubtless benefited from systemic racism and sexism. (Other than the fact that these morally degrade all of us.) I don't especially want to believe it, but it would seem irrational to deny the evidence.
Other positions I don't want intrinsically want to believe, but which rationality has led me to:
* There is no life after death.
* Quantum mechanics predicts other worlds.
* UFOs are not aliens.
* You can't travel faster than light.
* Morality isn't objective.
* There is no life after death.
* Quantum mechanics predicts other worlds.
* UFOs are not aliens.
* You can't travel faster than light.
* Morality isn't objective.
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