Hi,
I am currently in the processing of trying to write a college essay with the prompt:
Explain a belief you accepted at some time in your life but recently rejected on the basis of a rational process. You might
choose your former belief in the existence of Santa Claus, for example, but you should remember that the rejection you
discuss must have been made on a rational basis. Perhaps you changed your mind because of something you have heard,
or because of some experience you have had; but for this essay you must go beyond reporting what you heard or
describing what happened to you; you must display the process of reasoning that carried you to your new belief. In your
essay, explain the belief itself, your former reasons for holding it, and, most important, the rational process that led you
to reject it.
You may interpret “rejection” in a weak sense, such that you do not need to show that your former belief was false. For
example, if you rejected “eating spinach makes me strong,” you need not have come to the conclusion “eating spinach
does not make me strong.” All you need for this example is good reason for thinking that your information is not
sufficient to support any conclusion as to whether or not spinach makes you strong. Please consider your topic carefully.
We mentioned “Santa Claus” by way of illustration only. A good essay will use a serious belief that you have rejected
recently.
I'm having a lot of trouble brainstorming beliefs that I've rejected on a rational basis. I've looked at doing changed political/economic beliefs... But my reasoning for rejecting those beliefs doesn't seem to be rational. I'm also fairly surely that discussing my becoming atheism would be a fairly overused topic.
Does anyone have an examples of types of beliefs that get rejected in everyday life for rational reasons? I'm not looking for someone to do the essay for me, just get me going down the right path in terms of brainstorming.