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<blockquote data-quote="Jeremy Ackerman-Yost" data-source="post: 407775" data-attributes="member: 4720">It's not willpower that would allow these people to deny.&nbsp; They're actually very low willpower people for the most part.&nbsp; It's that their imaginary, cognitively structured little world DOES NOT ALLOW for it.&nbsp; They would rationalize that the aura of menace was no different than how they would have felt in any life-threatening situation.&nbsp; The dismembered guy they &quot;raised from the dead&quot; was part of an elaborate bit of stage magic.&nbsp; It doesn't matter that they were standing there with the hand on the guy's shoulder the whole time.&nbsp; It wouldn't matter if a god sat down and explained the universe to them.I'm talking about people who ultimately have low self-esteem but have built a new, higher self image by being &quot;intellectually superior.&quot;&nbsp; And part of their &quot;intellectual superiority&quot; is that they, unlike the &quot;unwashed masses&quot; aren't &quot;deluded&quot; by such &quot;absurd notions&quot; as divinity.The human psyche is remarkably fragile in some ways, and remarkably resilient in others.&nbsp; In order to keep their perceived status, they would be unable to accept the notion of divinity, no matter what was presented to them.&nbsp; These people are NOT CAPABLE of admitting that they were EVER wrong.&nbsp; If the existence of God would prove them wrong, they will either have an epiphany (VERY unlikely), dip into the well o' psychoses (pretty good chance), or deny (most likely, though you could make the argument that it would be a psychosis in and of itself).Maintenance of a self-inflicted lie is VERY important to people.&nbsp; It's the most common and powerful form of rationalization out there.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Jeremy Ackerman-Yost, post: 407775, member: 4720"] It's not willpower that would allow these people to deny. They're actually very low willpower people for the most part. It's that their imaginary, cognitively structured little world DOES NOT ALLOW for it. They would rationalize that the aura of menace was no different than how they would have felt in any life-threatening situation. The dismembered guy they "raised from the dead" was part of an elaborate bit of stage magic. It doesn't matter that they were standing there with the hand on the guy's shoulder the whole time. It wouldn't matter if a god sat down and explained the universe to them. I'm talking about people who ultimately have low self-esteem but have built a new, higher self image by being "intellectually superior." And part of their "intellectual superiority" is that they, unlike the "unwashed masses" aren't "deluded" by such "absurd notions" as divinity. The human psyche is remarkably fragile in some ways, and remarkably resilient in others. In order to keep their perceived status, they would be unable to accept the notion of divinity, no matter what was presented to them. These people are NOT CAPABLE of admitting that they were EVER wrong. If the existence of God would prove them wrong, they will either have an epiphany (VERY unlikely), dip into the well o' psychoses (pretty good chance), or deny (most likely, though you could make the argument that it would be a psychosis in and of itself). Maintenance of a self-inflicted lie is VERY important to people. It's the most common and powerful form of rationalization out there. [/QUOTE]

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