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Why do you believe what you believe?
Cochize
Member Posts: 211
Most people are always certain in what they believe and don't really question why if that belief makes them happy. When you stop to question why you think that way you often can't come up with a reason. This isn't just for Religions (though it can be) it's also for anything: 9/11/01, JFK, Global Warming, War in Iraq, Political Parties. They're all things that require belief in a certain side of the coin
What I'm saying is that people generally believe what they're told; that's exactly how rumors get started. Is the conspiracy theory for 9/11 that our government brought the towers down, or is it that terrorists were able to destroy the Twin Towers?
Comments
On the religion topic:
The reason I don’t believe what I used to believe (christianity) is because I examined the lack of evidence and decided I don’t need blind faith anymore to make me happy. Natural explanations are fine and in cases where there are none, i’m fine with just saying “I don’t know”.
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Always question everything in life. In doing so you are not only educating yourself, but also learning more about the given topic. The truth of any topic becomes obscure over time, and also as it passes on from one person to another. The truth gets twisted around, to suit the needs of any given person until what you have in the end is nothing but a trail with many paths all of which may or may not lead to it's center (Origin). Sometimes however even it's origin has been tampered with and the truth my never be known.
The Media is a good source of lies for example. In many case they are paid off to "reword" an event, or even paid off to ignore it entirely.
Here are some good examples of things you may have never known about:
http://www.foxbghsuit.com/
dir.salon.com/story/news/feature/2004/10/29/bulge/index_np.html
Just a few examples.
Of course most people's beliefs are based upon what they have been told. Starting from childhood your parents begin to pass on ideas to you which you integrate into who you are. If your parents raised you telling you that the sky is red, without any evidence being presented against that, that is what you are going to believe. That is why I believe once you become cogniscient that you have a choice in what you believe and don't believe from what people tell you, that you start doing your own research on topics you consider important. Some sheltered people might never reach that point, those people are blind masses. I try to always look at what people/media are telling me and why it is important that I know this information. There is always ulterior motives behind everything be said/printed in todays media.
Do your own research, keep an open mind (as much as possible)...and draw your own conclusions. It is not a bad thing to come to the same conclusion as others and long as you arrived at that conclusion yourself.
"It is easier to be cruel than wise. The road to wisdom is long and difficult... so most people just turn out to be assholes" Feng (Christopher Walken)
Just to throw in the other side of things....
If we never took anything on faith, the human race would come to a standstill. We couldn't possibly each do the research needed to prove to ourselves that all medical research ever been done isn't just lies. Most of us don't have the time to travel the world to find out if our atlas is telling us the truth or go to Iraq to confirm what we hear on the news. Probably most of what we think we know is based on taking things on faith. Really it's all a matter of learning to discern sources and being aware that our brains have a habit of seeing patterns where they may not really exist (how many times have you heard two or three people say a similar thing and reported that as "everyone" or at least "loads of people"?). I guess it's about accepting things as possibilities and basing how likely the possibility is on what you know of the source and what you know of the world (or at least have accepted as likely possibilities).
So if your best friend says he saw fairies at the bottom of his garden, you can start with the knowledge that most people don't say they see fairies and you've never seen them, you can assess whether your friend is sober or has gone mad or is teasing you, but if you decide that your friend hasn't been known to lie to you and he's serious about this sighting and convinced he wasn't tripping or dreaming, then it would be reasonable to assume that there's a good possibility he's telling the truth. You'd have more reason to trust him that some news reporter who's unknown to you.
Like I said before-don't reply,just read and continue.
My mind has changed so much. Yet I'm still acting like I'm the same.