Sacred beliefs aren’t just religious; everyday beliefs become sacred when we refuse to question them.

Motivated reasoning keeps us holding beliefs by filtering out contrary evidence.

Our favored theories are tied to identity, so challenging them can feel like a personal threat.

Test a cherished belief: Ask what evidence would change your mind and if an idea is wrong or just threatening.

When we hear the concept of “sacred belief,” we naturally think of religion. Yet moral psychology shows that everyday beliefs can be sacred as well. A belief becomes sacred when a person refuses to question it due to deep emotional investment and a strong sense of personal and group identity built around it.

The psychological machinery behind sacred beliefs is motivated reasoning. We hold on to a belief, regardless of its empirical defensibility, by filtering out contrary evidence, consciously or otherwise. The antidote is simple to state but difficult to practice: critically interrogating precisely those beliefs we hold most dear. Doing so is essential to epistemic humility, something I learned the hard way.

Despite the title of my blog, I wasn’t always “post-tribal.” I spent my young adult life identifying avidly with the progressive left. I worked for labor unions and community organizations, and had a few jail stints, one in Mexico, for getting into “good trouble.” Years of activism prolonged my Ph.D., and the low pay of social justice work left me paying off college loans into my 40s.

My passion for social justice arose from compassion, anger, and guilt over the world’s stark inequalities. In my........

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