Belief systems

[PolyPeter]

I died, came back, and now belief systems seem silly.

To me belief systems now feel like training wheels on a bike. Once you learn how to ride, you better ditch them so better tricks can take place! 

Why would anyone believe in anything when you can know directly?

Common responses:

- Fear of going crazy.

- Fear of pain.

- Fear of being wrong.

- Fear of Truth.

 

Extracts from conversations I've had with people:

"It is impossible for a human to live without a belief system" 
"Questioning my beliefs about belief systems??? I don't want to go crazy, thanks"
"If it were possible to see reality from outside all belief systems, that would be painfull and horrible"

 

[LastThursday]

It's an interesting thought: do you need beliefs at all?

I think beliefs allow you just to get on with living, without the burden of having to work everything out from scratch. Beliefs are heuristics for living. You can have good and bad beliefs, if you define them as being helpful for you on average, or from a more collectivist standpoint, helpful for your community in general.

But beliefs can be more fluid, if you work at it. I think it's also possible to have context dependent beliefs (even if socially that seems odd), which naturally loosens what you hold to be true.  You could even pick and mix beliefs as it suits you day-to-day. Although, I think it would take effort to live that way, it's far easier to be more rigid in your beliefs.

I think it's probably nearly impossible to live without beliefs, because you have to live in a society with social rules and laws, and you need quick heuristics to judge what to do in many different situations and not get paralised with indecision.

Edited 5 hours ago by LastThursday