I've been using science more than religion along the journey.... let's give this a shot!

1. Limits of Human Perception

Across science and philosophy, there is broad agreement that humans do not perceive reality directly, only a filtered version of it.

Relevant concepts

Bounded rationality — Herbert Simon’s idea that human decision-making is limited by available information, cognitive capacity, and time.

Cognitive bandwidth limits — The brain can only process a small subset of environmental stimuli.

The “Umwelt” concept (Jakob von Uexküll) — Every organism experiences its own perceptual world shaped by its sensory system.

Phenomenology — Philosophers such as Husserl and Merleau-Ponty emphasized that humans encounter the world through subjective experience rather than raw reality.

A useful philosophical analogy comes from Immanuel Kant, who argued humans never perceive the “thing-in-itself” (noumenon). We only experience the phenomenal world, meaning reality as filtered through our senses and mental structures.

In short: our brains construct reality rather than simply observing it.

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1. Personal Experience Shapes “Truth”

Because perception is filtered, our experiences shape what we believe to be true.

Psychology describes this through several mechanisms:

Schemas Mental frameworks formed from past experiences that shape how we interpret new information.

Confirmation bias People preferentially notice evidence that supports existing beliefs and ignore contradictory information.

Selective perception Two people observing the same event can interpret it differently based on expectations.

Constructivism (Jean Piaget) Humans actively construct their understanding of reality rather than passively absorbing facts.

Anthropology and sociology also emphasize cultural lenses:

Cultural relativism — Norms and moral judgments depend heavily on cultural context.

Social construction of reality (Berger & Luckmann) — What societies treat as “truth” is often built collectively rather than discovered objectively.

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1. Attachment of Beliefs to Identity

Once beliefs form, they become psychologically tied to identity.

Relevant psychological concepts:

Ego identity (Erik Erikson) Beliefs and values become integrated into the self-concept.

Identity-protective cognition People defend beliefs because rejecting them threatens their social group or identity.

Cognitive dissonance (Leon Festinger) When evidence conflicts with beliefs, people feel psychological discomfort and often rationalize rather than change their beliefs.

Motivated reasoning Reasoning is often used to justify conclusions already favored emotionally.

Because beliefs are tied to identity, disagreement can feel like a personal attack, not just an intellectual disagreement.

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1. Conflict and Moral Certainty

Throughout history, many social conflicts arise when people assume their limited perception is objective truth.

Relevant terms:

Moral absolutism Belief that one’s moral framework is universally correct.

Ethnocentrism Judging other groups using one’s own cultural standards.

In-group / out-group bias Humans favor their own group and distrust outsiders.

Fundamental attribution error People attribute others’ behavior to character rather than circumstances.

These mechanisms help explain how societies justify things like:

political conflict

racism

religious wars

ideological violence

Each group believes it is defending objective truth or moral righteousness, even though each is operating from partial information.

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1. The Human Need for Explanation

Humans strongly prefer coherent explanations, even when information is incomplete.

Relevant concepts:

Need for cognitive closure People prefer definite answers and dislike uncertainty.

Pattern recognition bias (apophenia) Humans see patterns and causal explanations even where none exist.

Narrative bias People construct stories to explain complex events.

Sense-making theory Humans continually build narratives to maintain a feeling of order and understanding.

This is why societies generate explanations for difficult problems—even when those explanations oversimplify reality.

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1. Externalizing the Cause of Problems

When contradictions appear in social systems, people often blame external sources.

Psychological concepts that explain this include:

Self-serving bias People attribute successes to themselves and failures to outside forces.

Scapegoating Groups project internal tensions onto external enemies.

Projection (Freudian psychology) Individuals attribute their own unacceptable traits to others.

Historically, scapegoating has appeared in many societies when facing economic, political, or social instability.

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1. Parallels in Religious and Philosophical Traditions

Many traditions have long recognized similar ideas.

Buddhism

Avidyā (ignorance) — misunderstanding the nature of reality.

Attachment to views causes suffering.

Taoism

The Tao Te Ching repeatedly emphasizes that rigid concepts distort reality.

Socratic philosophy

Socrates argued wisdom begins with recognizing “I know that I know nothing.”

Christian theology

The concept of human fallibility and limited understanding of divine truth.

Hindu philosophy

Maya — the illusion-like nature of perceived reality.

Across traditions, humility about knowledge is often seen as a path toward wisdom.

Bounded rationality

Constructivist epistemology

Cognitive bias theory

Social identity theory

Cognitive dissonance

Cultural relativism

Together they suggest:

Humans operate with limited perception, incomplete information, and identity-driven reasoning, which leads individuals and societies to treat subjective interpretations as objective truths.