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by adfgadfgaery 1556 days ago
The human capacity for self-deception amazes me. The people in the market claim to believe juju works. This is not a lie; they put up their own money to buy charms. But at some level they know it doesn't work, since they know the prize will go unclaimed. They can switch between these two beliefs to keep from confronting the inconsistency of their worldview.
2 comments
tenebrisalietum 1556 days ago
Context is king. It's likely less about structured/analyzed beliefs and more likely about expected/allowed behavior in situation A versus expected/allowed behavior in situation B.

For instance, inside church or around people from church, context A exists and behavior capabilities set A is selected, and when at a strip club, a different behavior capability set is selected. Where there is no context leakage, e.g. you don't hang out with the same people at the church that you do at the strip club, there may never be opportunities for the non-self-relfective to change.

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returnofzyx 1556 days ago
It's not really self deception. It's more of faith with a whole lot of ignorance. Ignorance of the old ways. How to go about it. So they get easily scammed by fake priests. Most african indigenous spiritual practices have been bastardized by the influx of islam and christianity. Most people believe in the old gods and are right to do so; but generational knowledge transfer is dwindling because of societal pressure. It's not really fashionable to be a traditionalist in Nigeria.
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IceMetalPunk 1556 days ago
"Most people believe in the old gods and are right to do so." I would strongly disagree, but then again, you would follow that by disagreeing with my disagreement :) As long as everything is allowed to be subjective opinion, anything goes.

And so I ask: what objective evidence is there that it is "right" to believe in the "old gods"? What makes the old traditions more accurate than the new ones? What evidence is there that any of them work, beyond stories and anecdotes at best?

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Dylan16807 1555 days ago
Could the old practices do any of this cool stuff either? Did they claim to?
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