What's So Wrong With Being Absolutely Right by Judy J. Johnson

[carolinayellowdog]

This 2009 publication from Prometheus Books is one of the most thoughtful and thought-provoking books I've read in many years. Rather than comment further in an OP, I will just share a link to the author's website and some quotes of special relevance to the Interfaith Group. My personal comments will be in a followup post. The first item in the book website q & a is a definition of dogmatism:

Dogmatism is the practice of pronouncing one’s beliefs with rigid, arrogant certainty. Absolute certainty. Psychologically, it is considered a personality trait in which various aspects of evolution, biology, culture, and social learning predispose people to act as if they were the sole expert on a subject. Even in the face of convincing evidence that should give reason to pause, dogmatic people will not, as Churchill said, “change their minds or change the topic.” They simply refuse to see things any other way, and fail to consider the possibility they might be wrong.

Chapter 5, "Black-and-White Thinking," lists thirteen characteristics of dogmatists:

Cognitive characteristics
1. An Intolerance of Ambiguity
2. Defensive, Cognitive Closure
3. Rigid Certainty
4. Compartmentalization
5. Lack of Personal Insight
Emotional characteristics
1. Belief-associated Anxiety or Fear
2. Belief-associated Anger
3. Existential Despair
Behavioral Characteristics
1. Preoccupation with Power and Status (as evidenced by behaviors)
2. Glorification of the In-group; Vilification of the Out-group
3. Dogmatic Authoritarian Aggression
4. Dogmatic Authoritarian Submission
5. Arrogant, Dismissive Communication Style

And the closing Chapter 16, "Where to from Here?" includes a section entitled "The Sacred and the Scientific," in which Dr. Johnson writes:

To suggest that religious believers are all closed-minded and delusional would counter religious fundamentalism with a neo-atheist fundamentalism that overlooks humanity’s eternal quest for spiritual gratification. It seems reasonable to consider religion an outgrowth of evolutionary or epigenetic rules of heredity that bind genes and culture, in which case religion falls within the purview of science, rather than being separate from it….
Lively, controversial debates about the benefits and shortcomings of science and religion have gained momentum. In the process, open-minded religious believers, atheists, agnostics, and scientists are mindful of the dangers inherent in dogmatic proselytizing of any range of belief systems—pro-religious, anti-religious, pro-science, antiscience, or agnostic. Yet science, religion, evolutionary theory, and spirituality are not necessarily incompatible, and if all of us took a psychological journey inside ourselves to understand how our own anxiety, fear, and self-doubt closes our minds, we would open the door to reason and respect across these boundaries.