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RE: Sharing Thoughts: Why Does Dogma Beat Rationality?
Following your instincts and habits has nothing to do with dogmas. Dogma is "a principle or set of principles laid down by an authority as incontrovertibly true."
Instincts and habits differ from dogmas because they are actually quite effective for survival (because you can react quickly and without spending too much energy), and thus quite rational.
Thanks for your comment :) You have a good point there.
When writing the post, I took the dictionary definition into consideration too. I figured that the authority laying down the principles could also be your environment- a powerful leader with many followers or any other general consensus. In this way, following dogma could be just like following an instinct or habit for survival- going with it means you can react quicker and thus save time and energy on figuring out an alternative behaviour/ opinion, as well as more likely be accepted by those around you.
In this way, instincts and habits can be made from dogma, as well as produce dogma themselves, even though we are technically capable of having other, maybe more rational thoughts and actions. The argument here isn't that instincts and habits are the same as dogma, rather that they thrive from similar needs of quick decision-making, approval and gratification.