creators_name: Montell, Conrad creators_id: cmontell@comcast.net editors_name: Smith, Charles type: journalp datestamp: 2003-01-27 lastmod: 2011-03-11 08:54:58 metadata_visibility: show title: Speculations on a privileged state of cognitive dissonance ispublished: pub subjects: phil-mind subjects: evol-psy subjects: soc-psy full_text_status: public keywords: cognitive dissonance, religious behavior, imagination, evolution, language abstract: This paper examines two commonly held and conflicting cognitions in the modern world, each based on a belief vital to the individual's sense of self, both maintained in what is here considered as a chronic state of dissonance. This psychological inconsistency consists of an inherent practical belief in the goodness of empirical knowledge and a culturally-developed transcendent belief denying, or at least mitigating, empirical evidence about the finite nature of individual life and affirming a counter-empirical belief in supernatural: supra-cause-and-effect forces that influence life. I argue that since both beliefs are highly resistant to change, they lead to an impasse that individuals in diverse cultures have borne and been motivated to maintain. They have borne it, as I hope to show, because the consonant “cure” has proved to be more discomforting than the dissonant condition. date: 2001-06 date_type: published publication: Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour volume: 31 number: 2 publisher: Blackwell pagerange: 119-138 refereed: TRUE referencetext: Armstrong, K. (1993). A history of God. New York: Ballantine Books. Aronson, E., & Mills, J. (1959). 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