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When we hear or use the words "belief" and "believe," we tend to jump to the top of the chain of complexity. The home of grand cathedrals, ornate mosques, colorful rituals and long, sacred texts.
However, belief, as a psychological mechanism, is much simpler.
We need to make decisions in order to act. To make decisions, we seek information. Food/not food. Safe/dangerous. Easy/hard. Friend/foe. Pretty drapes that go with our color scheme/ugly ones that don’t.
We never know 100 percent about anything. There’s always an information gap between ourselves and certainty. When we get into a car, we don’t "know" that a tire won’t blow, that a speeding garbage truck won’t sideswipe us, that the bridge across the river won’t fail. But we can’t afford the time and energy and effort that it would take to get all that knowledge. If, in reality, it is all getable. Yet, we still need to get to the elementary school to pick up our children. To the office, to the grocery. To the water hole where the game might be.
We have a psychological mechanism that bridges the gap between the knowledge we don’t have and the need to feel certain enough to act: belief.
You believe the car will work. And that your driving ability is sufficient to cope with the trials and tribulations that stand between you and Nancy Reagan Elementary School, where -- you believe -- your 7-year-old will soon be ready for pickup.
We "believe" in thousands, millions, of things, every day. Belief is a standard, normal, useful and necessary function of our minds.
Belief in Things That Are False
The sun rises. The sun sets. Except, of course, that it doesn’t. For most of human history, people didn’t know it was an illusion.
The earth is flat: If you sail too far, you’ll fall of the edge.
Originally posted by liquidsmoke206
kyo, you're missing the point.
it's basically saying that even if you're an atheist, you're still locked into a belief system.
therefor a world without religion can NEVER BE.
see what i mean?
Originally posted by liquidsmoke206
I'm saying atheism is still a belief system and therefor a religion. If you attempt to remove religion from society it will simply be replaced by another belief system. Thus it can never be done. Even believing that none of this is real, still a belief system...there's no way around it.