The Unholy Kinship of Faith, Suspended Disbelief and Psychopathy
Submitted by Terry Hill
Suspended disbelief can be defined as the intentional avoidance of critical thinking or logic in examining something unreal or impossible in reality, such as a work of speculative fiction, in order to believe it for the sake of enjoyment. It’s something we learn to do at a very young age.
Practicing it seems natural but it’s also taught to us at an early age and reinforced at every turn. Already inclined toward pretend play, children are then surrounded by pretend entertainment from toys to cartoons to movies, but then we go a step further and blend the world of pretend with a child’s understanding of reality.
While busy pretending to be astronauts and firefighters in those big red trucks, stretching their imaginations in developing minds, they’re simultaneously introduced to Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy among others, only these characters aren’t pretend. They might suspend the laws of physics and logic just like the cartoons kids love to watch, but these characters are introduced as real.
The explanation for how they suspend the laws of physics is magic, and suspending disbelief to accept magic is not a large leap for kids who are already suspending disbelief daily to enjoy pretend play or the likes of Harry…
