When words fail

This blog had previously explored the role of values in treatment and policy solutions, as well as excessive certitude.

Here are some thoughts on the limitations of religious art that may have something to offer:

When we reach for our most fundamental beliefs—whether these are beliefs about a  deity, or politics, or family—we aren’t likely to find words there. We’re much more likely to find images, metaphors, memories, half-felt impressions. We’re likely to find, that is, something far more slippery, more vague, more illogical than discursive argument. Words come afterwards—but the fact that they so often rest on a foundation of images goes a long way to explain why the most seemingly persuasive arguments fail so often: why we seek out evidence that confirms our beliefs; why we ignore evidence that does not; why being caught in contradictions often makes us hold on to them even tighter. Arguments rarely touch our central beliefs where they live…

[h/t Andrew Sullivan]