I wonder how many of us actually question why we believe the things we believe. How many of us really dig any deeper than the superficial? The truth is that most of us just go with the flow and accept things as we’ve been programmed? Yes, I say programmed, because the reality is that we are all programmed to one extent or the other from the moment we’re born. We’re programmed to believe certain things and to see particular things as normal, while, at the same time we’re programmed to see other things as abnormal. There is no doubt that many of the conflicts we have with one another result from this programming. But this programming is a really difficult thing to break through. It is imbedded in us deeply. This is true whether we are trying to free ourselves of this bias, or we are trying to free others, so that we may progress as a society. Old habits die hard, as they say. Religion is an obvious one. If one is born into a so-called Christian nation then it’s likely that they have been programmed, to one extent or the other, to consider Christianity to be the true religion. And this is true whether one actively practices or not. Sure, there are exceptions. Some are spared this for one reason or the other. But our society is kind of built around the idea that Christianity is the way to go, and that other religions are foreign and abnormal. The bottom line is that those who are born in a Christian nation are more likely to be Christian, rather than any other religion. This holds true in other countries as well. People born into predominately Muslim countries have a strong likelihood of being Muslims, and so on and so forth. What’s tragic is that many seem to be ready to go to war over religion. Many look at the other side as evil because they supposedly don’t follow the correct god. But when we realize that we were programmed to believe a certain way this all seems quite silly. We’re condemning people as evil for following a religion that they were basically predisposed to follow. And they are doing the same to us. I wonder how many would follow any religion if they were born into a country that had no religious tradition. How many would find a particular god if the society they grew up in didn’t push them in that direction? Is anyone really finding god or are they just following the tradition of their particular country? Politically, we have biases programmed into us as well. This goes beyond being born to parents that have particular political preferences. Many break free of that at some point. But besides that, we’re also programmed to think in terms of the two party system. Anything outside of that seems strange or extreme. Many have a hard time accepting something as common sense and practical as libertarianism because it seems foreign or weird. It doesn’t fit into our system as we know it. We’re also programmed to think of certain issues with a predetermined bias. This isn’t due to any sort of bad intentions. It’s just due to the fact that things are already aligned that way. The quandary over what to do about social security is one small example of this. Does it ever occur to anyone that we are programmed to expect retirement at a certain age? This expectation was programmed into us by the very social security program we seek to save. But did people think in terms of retiring at a certain age before this? Does it ever occur to us that this wasn’t the standard? But now that we expect this, we resist any change in social security that would threaten that ideal. Those are only a couple of examples, but there are plenty more. It is a very useful tool to be able to see through the programming and biases that we all have embedded in us. True change and advancement can only come if we can break free of those biases. How do we do that? Well, I’m not sure I have the answer. All I can do is point out the things I see and hope for the best.