belief

[miriam_e]

Recently I was visited by two nice, but deluded people who wanted to convert me to their favorite mythology. When I explained to them that I don't believe anything they were incredulous. "But everybody believes in something. You must believe in something."

I was puzzled -- still am. Why do people feel they need to believe something? It's something I never understood. Why this desire to believe unlikely or impossible things? The universe doesn't change itself and its history to suit mistaken human whims or desires.

Religious beliefs are some of the weirdest examples of this. Wanting there to be a god does not make it true (especially considering all the evidence against the existence of such a being).

But the desire to believe is the part I find hardest to explain. Why would anybody want to corrupt their understanding? Most religious people appear to have so damaged their critical faculties that they don't even realise their view of the world is broken, even though it takes very little effort to get them to admit that they want a god to exist. Occasionally you can even hear them utter that most idiotic of statements, that they wouldn't want to live in a world where their god didn't exist. Don't they realise how incredibly stupid that is? No. I guess they don't... but I wonder why they don't. Bear in mind that these are often people who are otherwise quite intelligent and rational. For some reason their ability to think clearly just dissolves when matters of belief become involved. Why is that?

Somehow the religious meme so damages thinking, that wanting something to be true becomes indistinguishable from being true. There are many ways this presents, and a lot of them are at the root of mankind's greatest evils. I've already mentioned the multitude of conflicting beliefs in gods, but they are not the only ones. There are beliefs that one race of people is superior to another (whatever "superior" means). There is the belief that some political system is "superior". There is the belief that people should conform in dress, speech, sexuality, aspirations, and so on. Some believe stars and planets guide their and others' actions, that telepathy exists, that aliens are among us, that we are reborn after we die, that homeopathy works, that they can judge a person's nature based on a superficial meeting. All around the world people are utterly convinced that their particular prejudice is correct, without, or even in spite of, evidence. People are incredibly quick to believe absurd things. Why, when it is so often shown to be wrong, and when they are so often the victims of others' prejudices? Why are they still so eager to believe?

Wanting to impose any belief upon reality is dangerous, even when the belief appears to coincidentally fit. The real world is always changing, but a person's beliefs tend to be static (the most powerful and influential might dress this way today, but not tomorrow). Also, getting the right answer for the wrong reasons is still wrong (spitting is a bad idea, not because it is rude, but because it is a way to spread tuberculosis).

Wherever it touches on our lives belief seems to damage us. So why are people so enthusiastic about embracing it. Why do they feel it is necessary? I manage fine without it. What the heck is going on?

When I was a kid I had a blackboard on my bedroom wall. One of the first things I wrote on it was "What is belief?" It remained there, bugging me in the corner of my blackboard til I left home. Now it is more than forty years down the track and I feel like I'm still no closer to answering that question.

What is most scary though, is that in spite of the extensive social damage it causes, most people don't even realise there is a question there to be asked.

Comments

[dorjejaguar.livejournal.com]

Honestly you're pretty unusual in that you would question and not understand the nature of belief so early and for so long.
I think perhaps it's easier to understand if not explain if one spends some time sitting right inside it.
I was raised with a particularly cumbersome belief system. At first I believed cause my mother told me it was true and I was very very young. Also there was a "miracle" early on that reinforced that. I took it all as true until unproven I guess for a long time. It was more important to me that it be workable than absolutely true. Turns out it wasn't workable.

I still do a lot of wondering about what is true, and what is not. My mind has seemed always to be interested in metaphysical subjects so I've been playing with these concepts for years. Some beliefs are more workable than others. Of course that doesn't make them true.

Have you thought much about the potential positive affects of belief? I know there are plenty negative ones but it does cut both ways.

[miriam-e.livejournal.com]

I don't think I'm particularly unusual. I've always approached questions from the standpoint that I'm an ordinary person and that I can theoretically do anything anybody else can. I know it isn't strictly true (I have sub-optimal numerical skills and my concentration on some things is easily distracted, while I have above average word skills and can come up with lateral solutions more easily than most), but it is a good and usable starting point. It also handily works against prejudice because it avoids special case arguments.

I can only think of one benefit of belief: tribalism. While it was once a significant payoff for belief, its usefulness in todays shrunken world is highly doubtful.

Are there others I have missed?

[dorjejaguar.livejournal.com]

:) Well I think you're unusual. Only my opinion, of course based on my experiences.

Well your right about tribalism, and that's all about identity.

If we're just talking about belief and the potential benefit of it the best way is to take it down to the smallest and least complex ones and examine how a person would act and see their world under their influence.

Take these questions: Am I loved? Am I capable? Is this person out to get me? Does this person care about me?
There are millions of beliefs, millions of working theories that people, without necessarily questioning act on. And some of these have positive effects. Many do not.

[miriam-e.livejournal.com]

What you said about seeing belief from inside interests me. I guess you might have hit on the reason I find this all so puzzling. I've always been very interested in perceptual and cognitive illusions and the fallibility of our intuition. From the earliest age I read science fiction and other stories about how jumping to conclusions is an easy way to make mistakes. My family is not anti-religious, though we are all non-religious. My parents have a deep reverence for all life and for nature generally, but as I learned more about how belief systems mislead people I became quite strongly anti-religious while enjoying the friendship of a number of religious people among my other atheist and agnostic friends. I like to say I detest the religion, not the people.

Perhaps my 50-something years spent without need of belief has made it hard to understand what people feel when they hide away inside it, there must nevertheless be some reason why they do it -- some incentive that makes sense on some level. If it is comfort at living inside a familiar fable, then I wonder if there is some way to get past that so that muslims, hindus, and christians don't kill each other, and racists don't oppress each other, and snobs don't tread on others. Can the comfortable illusion be cracked?

[dorjejaguar.livejournal.com]

I wondered about your upbringing. I guessed it might be something like that.

" I like to say I detest the religion, not the people."

:) Ever heard the phrase, "Love the sinner, hate the sin." ?

There are multiple reasons why people believe. Sometimes it's fear, sometimes it's comfort, sometimes it's experiences that tell them something they can't ignore, sometimes it's just accepting what's taught and what one is familiar with until something better comes along.

I don't actually think illusions must be cracked by outside forces. Illusions *will* be cracked because they are illusions.

Frankly I think it's easier to argue for kindness than try and tear down whole paradigms. Potentially far more effective as well. Beliefs, world views, assumptions, all these things can evolve and do.

[miriam-e.livejournal.com]

"Love the sinner, hate the sin."

Yes, I always loved that one. I have a few religious friends who take it to heart, but I've met far too many religious people who don't... and atheists too.

it's easier to argue for kindness than try and tear down whole paradigms

I like the idea of arguing for kindness, I just hope we have the time.

[dorjejaguar.livejournal.com]

Mmm, I've always hated that one cause I feel it's generally used as a way to cover and perhaps excuse a persons judgment.

Whatever happens kindness is not wasted.