Let us question our Beliefs ..

An excerpt from "The Mind in Making" by J.H. Robinson
The "real" reasons for our beliefs are concealed from ourselves as well as from others. As we grow up, we simply adopt the ideas presented to us in regard to such matters as religion, family relations, business, property, our country and the state. We unconsciously absorb them from our environment. They are persistently whispered in our ear by the group in which we happen to live. Moreover, these judgments, being the product of suggestion and not of reasoning, have the quality of perfect obviousness, so that to question them... is to the believer to carry skepticism to an insane degree, and will be met by contempt, disapproval, or condemnation, according to the nature of the belief in question. When, therefore, we find ourselves entertaining an opinion about the basis of which there is a quality of feeling which tells us that to inquire into it would be absurd, obviously unnecessary, unprofitable, undesirable, bad form, or wicked, we may know that that opinion is a non-rational one, and probably, therefore, founded upon inadequate evidence.
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The spontaneous and loyal support from ourselves, of our perceptions- This process of finding "good" reasons to justify our routine beliefs- is known by modern psychologists as "Rationalizing"- only a new name for a very ancient thing. Our "good" reasons ordinarily have no value in promoting honest enlightenment, because, no matter how solemnly they may be marshalled, they are at bottom the result of personal preference or prejudice, and not of an honest desire to seek or accept new knowledge.
In our reveries we are frequently engaged in self-justification, for we cannot bear to think ourselves wrong, and yet have constant illustrations of our weaknesses and mistakes. So, we spend much time finding fault with circumstances and conduct of others, and shifting on to them with great ingenuity the onus of our own failures and disappointments. Rationalizing is the self-exculpation, which occurs when we feel ourselves. or our group, accused of misapprehension or error.
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I seriously think that we need to spend time in solace to actually get to know what we say and what we do..