What is BELIEF ?

by EdenOne 233 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  EdenOne

  Cofty: An agnostic is just an atheist who has some more thinking to do.

  On the basis of every soft atheist is an agnostic. What he chooses to do with that lack of evidence is a matter of belief.

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  "We now know that our intellectual value judgments—that is, the degree to which we believe or disbelieve an idea—are powerfully influenced by our brains' proclivity for attachment. Our brains are attachment machines, attaching not just to people and places, but to ideas. And not just in a coldly rational manner. Our brains become intimately emotionally entangled with ideas we come to believe are true (however we came to that conclusion) and emotionally allergic to ideas we believe to be false. This emotional dimension to our rational judgment explains a gamut of measurable biases that show just how unlike computers our minds are:

  1. Confirmation bias, which causes us to pay more attention and assign greater credence to ideas that support our current beliefs. That is, we cherry pick the evidence that supports a contention we already believe and ignore evidence that argues against it.
  2. Disconfirmation bias, which causes us to expend disproportionate energy trying to disprove ideas that contradict our current beliefs.

  Accuracy of belief isn't our only cognitive goal. Our other goal is to validate our pre-existing beliefs, beliefs that we've been building block by block into a cohesive whole our entire lives. In the fight to accomplish the latter, confirmation bias and disconfirmation bias represent two of the most powerful weapons at our disposal, but simultaneously compromise our ability to judge ideas on their merits and the evidence for or against them."

  - Alex Likerman, M.D. in Psychology Today

  
  
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  Village Idiot

  Eden One, "If I desire to win the lottery tomorrow, does that make me a believer?"

  Of course it does. Not necessarily a rational believer.

  And funny you mentioned the lottery, I've been getting discarded scratcher tickets out of the store trash and registering their second chance code in in the belief that I may get a prize without spending a dime. People throw away their losing tickets and are too lazy to enter their second chance opportunity.

  I won $100 yesterday after 15 days of trash mining from a winning ticket that wasn't read right and discarded.

  Belief isn't always rational but it's self reinforcing. Now if you'll excuse me I've got some free lotto tickets to scratch.
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  Finkelstein

  EdenOne says ...... But his lack of belief isn't the direct result of the lack of evidence. That lack of evidence results in lack of knowledge.

  Quite the contrary, a person's lack of belief of a conceptual idea, usually occurs because of acquired evidence and knowledge that invalidates those purposed structured beliefs.
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  EdenOne

  Finkelstein:

  In that case, atheism is a result of "acquired evidence" as opposed to "lack of evidence"? is that your claim?

  Seems to me that what you're saying describes the loss of theist belief, not the same thing as atheism.

  Eden
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  Phizzy

  Belief, as you say in the O.P has several definitions. I use it in several ways depending upon context.

  When talking about the belief in god, I use this definition, which I cannot see is faulty, it is "trusting that there is a god without a shred of evidence." (Evidence meaning facts that are testable and stand any scrutiny.)

  Such Belief is indistinguishable from Delusion.
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  Finkelstein

  Finkelstein:

  In that case, atheism is a result of "acquired evidence" as opposed to "lack of evidence"? is that your claim?

  In short Yes
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  Finkelstein

  Weren't all acclaimed and professed deities from the ancients derived out of human ignorance to give answer to the unknowns and lack of evidential knowledge ?
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  Seeking agape

  
  
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  cofty

  It's ridiculous how often atheists are told what they believe/don't believe and why, and what label they ought to apply to themselves.
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  EdenOne

  It's ridiculous how often atheists are told what they believe/don't believe and why, and what label they ought to apply to themselves.

  By the same token, it's ridiculous how agnostics are told what they believe and don't believe and why and that they haven't made all their thinking, otherwise they would be atheists.

  The intention is merely to point out what I perceive to be a logical flaw on the definition of atheism, that makes it somehow misleading. You said it yourself in another thread that you don't like the term "atheist". I also said in another thread that the term, as it is commonly understood, doesn't reflect the etymology at the root of the word.

  Eden