User:Purple Scissor/Sandbox/Signs of believer mentality

The following are all warning signs of believer mentality. Believer mentality is when a person (on a psychological level) is arguing from a dogmatic system of belief, rather than a system of logical or scientific probability.

Cannot lose gracefully

Inability to notice or acknowledge when one has lost a debate.

Elitism

• Placing one's self in an elite group of "those in the know."

• The belief that those who believe the same way you do are smarter than those who believe differently.

People who believe what I believe are more educated

Unsupported belief that those who hold your belief are more educated than those who hold the opposing belief. This comes out in statements like "all educated people believe that" rather than "those who have studied the matter closely usually agree that."

There is no evidence

Claims that "there is no evidence" for something (such as life after death). This is sometimes a true claim, but when a person persists in saying this after they have been corrected, they are displaying believer mentality, usually pseudoskepticism. What they really mean is one or both of the following:

• I do no believe that there is any valid evidence
• I have not studied the subject and did not know there was evidence.

There is almost always evidence for a claim. Whether or not there is valid evidence, or whether there is sufficient evidence to adopt the claim as the working paradigm is often debatable. Evidence is not the same as valid evidence.