Why do human beings have brains and minds capable of reason?  It is not, as one might think, to pursue truth.  The brain can be coopted to that purpose, but the brain is an organ, and like all organs it comes about naturally for its contribution to the survival of the individual animal.  Human beings—homo sapiens, literally “smart man”—has what smarts it has in order to better survive and adapt from moment to moment.

Most people use the brain to this end, as they are naturally designed to do.  They do not engage in thought in order to discover truth.  They engage in thought in order to survive, moment to moment.  What does a human being need in order to survive?  First, to continue its vital life processes, and (a very close) second, to establish and maintain a tribal identity, meaning a secure position within its tribe.  The natural behavior of a human being is to bend all of its intellectual power to these two objectives, and these two only.  Everything you see in its behavior is an expression of this.  A scientist may be very intelligent, and may perform extremely complex or rigorous mental feats in order to collect and analyze data or postulate a theory, but this is not because the individual is driven by any means to find truth.  It is because this process of producing data or theories pays the bills and secures the individual the accolades of the people whose opinions determine the quality of his life—i.e., his tribe.

This is the reason behind the apparent disconnect between intelligence and beliefs, and between intelligence and behaviors, which gives rise to the phenomenon of apparently narrowly focused intelligence.  We know that great actors must be creative, intelligent, disciplined, motivated people.  Yet in every aspect of their lives aside from portraying a character before the camera, they behave in the most self-evidently stupid ways.  Likewise for other artists and for most scientists, doctors, lawyers, etc.  Within their narrow fields of professional specialty, they exhibit tremendous intellectual prowess.  In all other aspects of their lives, they are manifestly blithering idiots.  This also explains what Thomas Kuhn and, more recently, Peter Duesberg, have observed about the scientific community: that the vast majority of “scientists” are in fact data-gatherers, dedicated to the goal of gathering data which supports the currently dominant paradigms (accepted scientific orthodoxy) and openly hostile to anyone who challenges orthodoxy, even though it is only by revolutionary thinking that science actually advances.  This also explains why people you know, who seem intelligent in some respects, can say such mind-boggling things to you and recognize no problem in what they say.  There is no problem in what they say.  That it is not true or not rational is not a problem, because truth and reason are not the intent.  This person’s brain is doing exactly what it was intended to do: help the person survive.

This is also what you do.  Day in, day out, minute to minute, to the extent that you think, thinking for you is not a pursuit of the truth but a survival mechanism, and to ensure social harmony with those who have power over your quality of life, and you will never know what is true or what is false.  You will only succeed or fail in keeping yourself from experiencing immediate discomfort, because that is your objective.  You will bend all of your power to preventing discord with your friends or bosses and avoiding any nonhabitual discomfort (any discomfort to which you are not already accustomed), no matter into what contortions you have to bend your mind, no matter of what lies or stupidities you have to convince yourself.  You’ll do all of this, and you’ll feel good about it, too.  In other words, the most natural function of your brain is to exert all of its power to the goal of fitting in with the crowd and justifying whatever your fears demand.