Heaven’s Reward Fallacy

There are many cognitive distortions: negative  thinking patterns that can often cause people’s thinking to become irrational.

The word ‘irrational’ might be a bit of an extreme label, as it could lead us to believe that these patterns of thinking aren’t normal, but many of us are apparently pre-programmed to think this way. After all, if we didn’t expect something bad to happen, how could we be prepared for it? It’s survival 101! But in this day and age, for many of us in ‘the modern world’, much of this negative thinking is unnecessary.

There is quite a big list of cognitive distortions. Negative thinking is just the basis of some of the thought process that can snowball into many of them transforming into depression or anxiety.

Heaven’s reward fallacy is the one distortion that I feel needs more of an explanation! Maybe I haven’t read a thorough enough article on it but I think people could seriously misunderstand it and choose to become some of the nastiest, self-serving and even murderous chaps ever known.

Here’s an explanation of ‘heaven’s reward fallacy’ I found online:

Heaven’s reward fallacy is an irrational thinking pattern which is evidenced by falsely believing that sacrificial behaviour will definitely be rewarded by a certain divine force. People with this unrealistic cognitive framework trust that the world is always fair and that hard work and martyrdom always pay off; hence, they often feel frustrated and disappointed when their efforts do not seem to yield results.

I understand that the title of this cognitive distortion is probably not meant to be taken literally but how many people will take it literally? Or how many will forget the ins and outs over time, like we do with so many so called ‘wise teachings’?

The example above does mention expecting a reward for sacrifice but how many will just remember that it teaches not to make sacrifices? Where would we be without a little sacrifice every now and then? One messiah short of a bible, possibly?

This cognitive distortion is an interpretation of people suffering unnecessarily but stands a chance of upsetting many religious communities, stopping decent people being decent and convincing would be criminals to think ‘sod it, I’m gonna be a right bas7ard’ . Oh, and I forgot to mention all the karma believers losing a belief that could be seen as quite commendable. Even if karma is false, it doesn’t really matter how true it is, as long as it keeps people decent. Does it??

This cognitive theory - first thought of by Aaron Beck’s - is by most part based on simple observations and is a really clever and useful tool in the world of mental health, but heavens reward fallacy might have been better named ‘don’t be a doormat’ or ‘must stay out of hell fallacy’. But even the belief in hell has surely saved a few people from becoming serial killers.

This whole rant could probably fall into the ‘black and white thinking’ category of the cognitive distortion theory, but I think I might have just created my own sub-category: Negative Based, Over-Analysis. This may result in an irrational tendency to create misunderstandings out of well-understood understandings.

 I hope I haven’t distorted your cognitive understanding of cognitive distortions! If so, I understand!

Thanks, Neil.