The Importance of Habit

I’ve had numerous people ask me why I’m so adamant about deists/theists to give up their ‘benign’ beliefs. Usually I go along the lines of arguing against the assumption that they’re benign. However, as of late, I’ve been arguing in the case of habit.

Habit, ideally, need not be of much importance. In practicality, however, it is almost essential. For example, using turn signals and mirrors aids in the reduction of car accidents. Now, if there’s no one in proximity, there’s really no reason to use a turn signal and mirror, as there’s nothing to cause an accident that would be directly related to not using a turn signal and/or mirror. However, using turn signals and mirrors becomes a slightly subconscious event and whichever way your habit leans will probably affect your decision in using one where it may need to be used. Especially in cases where you think there’s no one around, but there actually is in your blind spot… or just a spot you haven’t checked. I cannot tell you how many times I’ve come close (and in some instances have collided) with a car collision on my bicycle because the car in front of me or at my side didn’t use its turn signal or mirror thinking that he wasn’t going to turn into anyone. The point is is that it’s important to keep the habit of using turn signals and checking mirrors before you turn to prevent yourself from subconsciously not using them and run the risk of running into someone.

The same can be said about the habit of using irrational arguments. A child mimics the behaviour patterns of adults. If a child sees their parents using circular logic, or any other logical fallacy, the child will attempt to adopt that pattern, thinking that this is correct. In much the same way as Pavlov’s dogs, the child will grow up to believe that this is sound reasoning and it will become a habit of theirs to use irrational argumentation. It will become characteristic of the person to habitually use irrational logic to explain many things in his/her life and it is not reasonable to be irrational.

The danger of irrational behaviour is that it can pretty much affect any aspect of life. Just take the circular arguing theists use such as ‘It’s right because God said so’. Why would a child, growing up in an environment that preaches this circular logic, think otherwise when it comes to other authority figures such as government and their own parents – oppression and abuse, respectively. Another example would be the argument that “Christianity has increased in the world. The world is a better place than it was before. Ergo, Christianity makes the world a better place.” This style of arguing tells someone that it’s rational to go from loose correlation to cause and effect – a jump to a conclusion which could also readily be used to argue such things as “Pirates have decreased over time, and global warming has increased. Ergo, if we bring back pirating, global warming will go down.”

Irrational arguments should never be supported, much less made a habit. It’s important to remove the habit of irrational argumentation of which theists have devoted their lives to of which, out of habit, will spill out into other areas of their lives.