Reasons why people don't want to know
the truth
Not wanting to admit error in man is due to a mix of feelings in the process of reasoning.
I have observed throughout my life man trying to justify things by way of twisted interpretations of what they read, that being about news, questions of law, or the Bible. The reasons that move them to do that are very diverse, so much in common everyday life as in questions of religion. Let's see the latter.
1) Fear of offending God if he doubt what men have taught him, and submit it to reasoning.
2) Fear of finding a truth which he feels is too much of a burden.
3) Fear of changing doctrine and then have to face those who previously thought like him and be considered a traitor.
4) Pride, the resistance to admit that they were wrong and that they had not adequately used their mental abilities.
5) Fear of what is new to him, without knowing why he fears.
6) Others want "something new" to preach in order to justify their separation from their church or to justify a new sect they may want to form or maintain.
7) Another motive is to justify himself to continue to admit something that his conscience or intellect tells him is incorrect, but for him: a) its existence is convenient; or b) to admit the interpretation that is not twisted puts him in a situation of opposition with the rest who distortedly believe it.
8) Justify social, sexual or
racial prejudices. In the time of African slavery there were some who
said that blacks did not have a
soul, in order to justify what
was done in their environment. Others justified
all of that by assuring, without
a Biblical basis for it, that
the curse of Noah for
9) Desire to maintain oneself "ignorant" or at least "skeptical" about the validity of a norm of conduct or religion so as not to find themselves obligated to comply with or feel bad about not complying.
10) To justify their sin by forcing themselves to believe that they understand religion or the Bible in another manner. This was the case of a pastor who amplified the concept of forgiveness and grace so much, that he included in this concept the continual adultery of his wife and the repulsive consent of his towards such a sin. In order to justify himself, he said I was guided by the law, but he was under grace. (Of all these cases which I mention I have their names and sect; but I'm not specific because I don't want to unnecessarily damage others).
11) To think that the modification of his beliefs after many years, either acquired since childhood, by family tradition or when he converted to the gospel, can put salvation in danger, or the concept that the person believes God has of him and his "faith".
12) The lack of confidence in their own analysis of the Word of God, which makes them imagine that all new things that come into their minds, all new idea that are suggested are "proof" that God submits to them, in order to see if that person maintains himself "firm". Others believe that it is a "temptation from the Devil". This was what a priest of a town I frequently visited told his congregation with respect to the preaching of the Protestants of the area.
13) Confuse stubbornness with faith, and categorize reasoning about the Word of God, as a dangerous doubt, as a weakness in the faith and a temptation. A Christian of many years, reader of the Bible and with a University degree guaranteed to me that to reason about religion is a sin, and that to use our logic was something diabolical. He did not want to see that Christ used logic in His preaching, and that Paul fills the epistle to the Hebrews with reasoning. According to him, his obstinacy and stupidity, is faith of "titanic" proportions; he considered himself a titan in the faith, because he resisted reasoning.
14) Others do not wish to reach the truth because this would prevent them from belonging to an elite group, exclusive, a small group of "chosen" ones, that can look others above their shoulders with "divine justification". This is how the Russellites are, who believe that they are going to be the presidents, senators, governors, mayors, etc., of countries when the "New World Order" comes. Some Jews do something similar, they pretend to justify with their religion, their longings of racial superiority in the same manner that the Nazis justified theirs with the Nazi "religion" and their idol Hitler. A religion of racial equality as is Christianity does not call attention to those who have a religion in which their race, or certain group, is superior to the others.
15) To be so fully involved in a sin or lust that has accompanied us all our lives as persons or as members of society, that we do not realize what we have. We do not realize that it is a sin, because we believe it is a natural part of life. It is like telling a fish that he is wet; he would not understand us, because he had never seen anything or anyone in a dry state. He could not even imagine what dry talcum powder or dry wheat flour is. Likewise, he who by having so much time a lust, attributes it as a natural part of life, does not comprehend, or twists, the explanations or mandates that the Word of God says to the contrary.