Religion, Atheism and the projection bias

Happy_Killbot

I don't know if there is a strong argument to be made on either side here. There are definitely individuals who commit this fallacy, but I don't think that making a broad generalization to either side is required.

God beliefs lie on a spectrum, from the most extreme who will not entertain any conflicting beliefs on either extreme with the completely agnostic and/or ignorant in the center.

I have talked to people all along the spectrum, and depending on where I think that someone is completely changes the conversation. There is a huge difference between someone who is 100% certain that god exists as opposed to 99% sure. In fact I would say that there is as much distance between 50% and 99% as between 99% and 100%.

That being said, the underlying motives of someone usually make themselves clear very fast, at this point is it projecting so much just figuring the person out?

A lot of the hard core 100% theists will sometimes make the assumption that everyone knows what they know and assumes what they know without realizing they are making assumptions. When I talk with these types, the goal is primarily to make the person recognize their assumptions. If someone is at 99% the goal is to make them doubt those assumptions. I don't think that there is as much projection in either case as simple lack of understanding.

MayCaesar

We all view others through the prism of our perceptions, that, in turn, are colored by our beliefs. It does not matter what our beliefs are; they skew how we see others, and projection necessarily arises.

I encountered the situation where I thought I knew with 100% certainty how someone was going to act, only to be completely surprised by their actions, so many times that, at this point, I have basically given up the idea on trying to predict people's actions in general. I do the best I can on my part and give them the freedom to respond in any way possible. I can be very nice to someone, only to be greeted with extreme rejection and rudeness - or I can be very mean to someone, only to be thanked profoundly and loved in return. We all are so unique and different, our backgrounds differ, our thought patterns differ, our preferences differ... It is best to always keep an open mind and to never make any assumptions about others, as long as there is, at least, some room for ambiguity.

Our minds work in a strange way, always trying to fill the gaps in our knowledge with assumptions that seem to make sense to us. Those assumptions almost always turn out to be wrong to some degree. We need to always be aware of the information we have and the information we do not have, and to not let our mind get out of control. If you know that someone is a theist, and even if you know a lot of details about their beliefs, you still should not assume that you know all or the majority of their beliefs. You know what you know, and the rest is up for you to discover - and until you do discover it, it is best to keep an open mind.

It takes many-many-many years of close interaction to figure someone out to the degree where you can reasonably make guesses on what their deep beliefs are and how they are going to react to most of your possible actions. And even then you should expect a lot of surprises.