I’m a little irritated by some people and their beliefs. Not that I’m against people believing in whatever they want (it is unbiblical for me to violate another person’s godgiven will to do as they please), but I’m disturbed by just exactly how people come about to believing in the things they do.
One way of thinking says that we believe what we do because it’s in our nature, in our genes, to do so. This would fall as a subcategory of the “Nature over Nurture” model. We believe because we are designed to believe. This is, of course, ridiculous since I am just as genetically human as the next person, yet we don’t necessarily believe the same things–moreover, genetically identical twins don’t always believe in identical principles. It is thus very unlikely to really think our Nature determines completely what we ought to believe as true.
The opposite line of thinking would be to assume the “Nurture over Nature” position. Now, this is slightly more plausible than the former, but it’s still pretty incoherent if you get down to it. If I were raised in a colonial society, I’d probably grow up believing that colonialism was totally alright (we’re discussing this stuff in English class at the moment, by the way). Conversely, I, having been raised in a more modern society of the 1990′s to 2000′s have not been so indoctrinated by colonialist thinking. This is why I find stories about the kinds of things people thought and did back then to be a little on the megalomaniacal, ultra-pretentious side of human behaviour. Now, both these clearly conflicting beliefs cannot both be right at the same time. This is just one example pointing out the fatal flaw in this whole “I was taught to believe this, therefore it’s right for me.” way of thinking. I can think one thing about the way our solar system works because of my culture or historical chronological position, and you can think quite another because of yours, but who is right? The Sun can’t fly around the Earth and the Earth the Sun at the same time.
A third way of thinking believes that whatever they believe is true because they believe it. Usually, people can’t admit to this directly with words and well formed sentences, since it is, fundamentally, just as ridiculous as the first two options I’ve discussed. If something is true simply because I believe it so, then technically, I literally believe myself into immortality, believe myself a cushy job, and believe myself blameless before a court of law. Clearly, if courts do not rely on the beliefs of the accused, there should be no reason to assume such a mechanism for determining validity of things with our daily lives.
And yet, many people really do trick themselves into living as if they were the sole law givers, keepers, and fixers, all the while telling themselves that it somehow makes sense or worse, that it isn’t really how they think when it is. I know I’m guilty of this many times, but on the whole, at least I realize it when I do and know it to be ridiculous. This third belief system is quite possibly the most destructive and more prominent one of the three so far. How does one prove anything to anyone who can simply believe facts in and out of existence? I am sitting on a chair as I type this, and yet you could believe me strung up from the ceiling and it might just be so if beliefs could alter facts. Any rational person can probably see what I’m getting at. We cannot expect the truth, the very fundamental facts, 1s as opposed to 0s if you like, of the world as we know it to bend and warp to fit out whims. This is completely illogical and impossible to adopt as a serious belief system. If every fact was up for debate, up for question, since there can be no certainty with what is believed from person to person, how would you get up in the morning? What if you forgot to believe the ground was there as you ot off your bed? Some things are up for debate, that’s for sure, but to say everything is (which is essentially the main belief of relativists), that is simply impossible.
The last belief system I’m considering isn’t really focused n beliefs themselves, but more on, you guessed it, the subjects of belief. That is to say, this final belief system doesn’t really take into account what you believe to be true, but emphasizes the theory (though not really a theory IMO) that truth is truth regardless of your take on it. A chair is a chair, even if you want to call it a dog and want to walk it. I can believe myself a woman all I want (though I don’t exactly want to at the moment) but that’s not gonna make anything fall off (God forbid!) or cause any sprouting of extra members anytime soon. The fact is, I’m a boy, and you’re a girl (or you might be a boy too, it’s just an example) and there’s very little beliefs can do about changing those very simple, very straightforward, very absolute truths. This is an absolutist way of thinking, but it makes the most sense. The world is built with a certain set of axioms that really don’t need our study, analysis, approval or disproval to be true (the “laws” of physics and math come to mind instantly). We didn’t need to know “gravity” before objects started falling if you dropped them. Similarly, you don’t technically need to believe there’s such a thing as sin or hell for you to be in grave danger of suffering one or both.
This is ultimately where I would like to have taken this discussion. Then again, perhaps a weblog is not the best place to be giving a lecture about these things. What do you think? How do you think? I think it’s a shame for anyone to live their whole life without at least once questioning these kinds of things. If all you believe about yourself, your life, your worth, your death, and your ultimate destination is based on something that makes sense to you, there’s very little anyone can do or say to change your mind (which may or may not be a good thing). But if all it is is delusional thinking, perhaps you ought to reconsider some things you take for granted and seek out more defensible positions. Believing in what you will is not an issue, but believing what you will with good reason is.