Human thought is carried out by associating elements of reality to corresponding parts of narratives. When people, things and actions are plugged in, the narrative provides a predictive model that asserts its premises as certainly as a syllogism.
This is an act of faith: the binding of elements of reality to a story with a definite arc. There is no reason for that narrative to be grounded in reality or to be provable by logic, although many are. The selection of a narrative itself is result of more basic identifications to more abstract narratives. The establishment of a core set of narratives to identify with provides the core of personality, that is, how an intelligence frames reality that results in behaviors. Thought proceeds via metaphor.
Steering from one framing narrative to another is the point of influence and education. Narrative choices can easily complement or oppose each other, and be reevaluated while acting on them. Professing loyalty to a certain group of narratives allows others to predict your behavioral choices.
Scientific narratives can be verified by independent measurement narratives which have implicit context. They get refined as that context is recognized. The same is true of more fragile, faith based narratives.
There is an active ecosystem of competing ideas that are applied to frame reality. Like any evolutionary system, the ideas complement and fit with other ideas, they mate and prey upon each other, and while they rely on external components of reality, surviving with random associative elements is also a possibility.
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