What triggers Doubt-Avoidance Tendency? Well, an unthreatened man, thinking of

nothing in particular, is not being prompted to remove doubt through rushing to

some decision. As we shall see later when we get to Social-Proof Tendency and

Stress-Influence Tendency, what usually triggers Doubt-Avoidance Tendency is

some combination of (1) puzzlement and (2) stress. And both of these factors

naturally occur in facing religious issues.

 

Thus, the natural state of most men is in some form of religion. And this is

what we observe.

 

Five: Inconsistency-Avoidance Tendency

 

The brain of man conserves programming space by being reluctant to change, which

is a form of inconsistency avoidance. We see this in all human habits,

constructive and destructive. Few people can list a lot of bad habits that they

have eliminated, and some people cannot identify even one of these. Instead,

practically everyone has a great many bad habits he has long maintained despite

their being known as bad. Given this situation, it is not too much in many cases

to appraise early-formed habits as destiny. When Marley’s miserable ghost says,

“I wear the chains I forged in life,” he is talking about chains of habit that

were too light to be felt before they became too strong to be broken.

 

The rare life that is wisely lived has in it many good habits maintained and

many bad habits avoided or cured. And the great rule that helps here is again

from Franklin’s Poor Richard’s Almanack: “An ounce of prevention is worth a