Good Thinking!

Brain Care

Brains do so much for us, yet most of us neglect them and do not care for them as well as we should.

Good nutrition is vital for the proper care and maintenance of your brain. Try to do the basic and obvious good things, such as eating lots of leafy, green vegetables and keeping the total amount of food consumed on a daily basis reasonable. A poorly fed brain cannot think well. A brain that is trapped inside a poorly fed body cannot be optimally healthy.

To work well and stay healthy, brains need to be inside of active bodies. It is crucial that you do some form of physical activity for at least twenty or thirty minutes, six days per week.

Brains need sleep. There is still mystery about what brains do during sleep, but whatever it is, it’s important. A sleepy brain is a substandard brain.

Staying mentally active throughout life is key to keeping the brain functional and healthy. Learning new skills creates new connections in the brain, which are linked to overall health.

The Need for Beliefs

There are a few basic questions that probably stop many people just short of transforming themselves into good skeptics with a passion for learning and thinking: What will I lose? Is it worth it? Will I be okay if I give up some of my beliefs? These are understandable concerns. I don’t dismiss them or take them lightly. Many people are just not sure about shining the hot light of science and reason on their beliefs because they worry that doing so might result in them having to make sacrifices that they just don’t want to make.

Many people love their beliefs and claim to need them for the comfort they provide. Others view their beliefs as an invaluable and irreplaceable source of thrills that brighten and energize what would otherwise be a boring and dim existence. And some say it is beliefs that give meaning to their lives. Often it is the same person who says all of these things. They cling to one or more dubious beliefs because they rely on them for comfort, excitement, and meaning—the whole shebang. People who feel this way don’t just want beliefs. By their own admission, they need beliefs. But is this true? Do they really depend on them to the degree that they think?

I could be wrong, but I don’t think that most people need to accept claims that probably are not true in order to have at least a fair chance of finding or achieving acceptable levels of comfort, excitement, and meaning in their lives. Maybe the typical believer in psychic readings or astrology really would be reduced to the psychological equivalent of a warm blob of twitching jelly if she or he realized one day that her or his beliefs were unlikely to be true. But I doubt it. I know too many people who let go of their beliefs and have been fine ever since. In my opinion, virtually all people—whether or not they know it—are smart enough and strong enough to cope with the difficulties and uncertainties of life without needing to wrap themselves in fantastic claims. I only have to look at the example of my own life. I’m not so lucky that I escape facing many of the same challenges and disappointments other people do, yet I have managed to persevere so far without leaning on irrational beliefs. In fact, I suspect that I’ve coped with the stresses of life better than I might have otherwise because my head is less cluttered with bad ideas and distracting delusions. This allows me to focus on the problem at hand and, if necessary, rely on real people who can help or comfort me. But that’s just me. Far more significant is the example set by the many millions of people around the world who don’t believe in most or any of the usual unlikely-to-be-true claims.

So how do they do it? How are they making it, all alone so to speak? By living in the real world and dealing with life the best they can, that’s how. These nonbelievers aren’t invulnerable superheroes. They aren’t emotionless Vulcans. They suffer. They fail. They endure losses. They cry. But somehow they live and succeed without pretending to know things they don’t and without constantly explaining things that currently have no explanation. In short, they act like mature and brave human beings. The existence of good skeptics who thrive despite having no belief in ghosts, magic, miracles, and so on may not disprove the notion that people need to believe, but they certainly cast doubt upon it.

Yes, it is disturbing that, in the surveys cited here, about a quarter of the American adult population believes in astrology and 37 percent believes in haunted houses.[1] But let’s not overlook the reverse side of such statistics. Somehow, 75 percent of adults manage to get up in the morning, dress themselves, and face the day even though they don’t believe in astrology; and 63 percent of adults seem to find life interesting enough without believing in haunted houses. Overall, about three out of four Americans believe in at least one paranormal claim—but that leaves a quarter of all Americans who do not.[2]

If belief is critical to the good life, then what are we to make of people who don’t believe? Are they all miserable misfits and dysfunctional dolts? That’s obviously not true. So are they a superior race of people with advanced brains who have evolved beyond irrational belief? Nope, not true either. It’s safe to assume that most people who are living a relatively belief-free life are a mix of regular people much like everyone else. They may have made the decision to think critically and do their best to live in the real world, but apart from that, they are more alike than different compared to the rest of the population. Even religion, so often hailed as the prerequisite to a good and meaningful life, somehow isn’t necessary for the more than one billion people on Earth at the time of this account who describe themselves as nonreligious or unaffiliated with any religion.[3] Between 500 million and 700 million of these people go one step further and describe themselves as atheist or agnostic.[4] I don’t doubt that unproven beliefs can provide comfort, excitement, inspiration, and meaning for people. I just think that these things can be found in known reality as well, as a large portion of the world’s population proves every day.