Belief

Overview

Belief, or the act of believing, can mean any of several slightly different things. The overall definition could be phrased as:

• the knowledge or understanding of a piece of information as truth

Types

This comes in two somewhat different varieties, however:

1. an acceptance that a piece of information corresponds to observable reality (to a sufficient degree that acting upon it is reasonable)
   • "I believe that it will rain today, so we should probably bring umbrellas."
   • "I believe that I can sit on this chair."
2. the result of a decision to admit a piece of information as true regardless of observable reality (i.e. faith in an item of doctrine or dogma)
   • "I believe that Jesus was born of a virgin, despite the fact that this is biologically impossible."
   • "I believe that God will save us if we pray hard enough."

The reason for these two rather different usages may be due to subtly different usages of the word truth:

1. that which accurately reflects reality
   • This definition leads naturally to the "corresponds to observable reality" definition of belief.
2. that which is agreed upon by all [in a given group]
   • While this definition can lead to the "corresponds to" definition of belief if one is surrounded by people who agree that this is the proper definition, by the same token it can also lead to the "regardless of" definition.

Between those two extremes there is middle ground which can be generalized as a decision to admit a piece of information as provisionally true without personal direct observation if it passes all of the following tests:

(a) it is consistent with (or at least does not contradict) any evidence of which I am aware

(b) previous experience leads me to the conclusion that the source of this information is reliably accurate

(c) There is further evidence which I can check for inconsistency if I so choose, at least in theory (i.e. the information is falsifiable)

Examples:

• "I do not understand subatomic theory, but I believe that the sun is powered by thermonuclear fusion."
• "I do not have a list of all the evidence easily at hand, but I believe the theory of evolution by natural selection is by far the best explanation for the origins of all known species including humans."

Belief in Science

This middle ground is the basis for any individual's belief in most of the findings of science, as the body of knowledge represented by science is now far too large for any one person to understand completely; even the most knowledgeable scientists must accept large parts of it without direct evidence.

This fact is often used as the basis of a claim that belief in science is "taking science on faith", and that science is therefore just another religion. The difference, of course, is that religion does not satisfy criteria (b) or (c), and many religious claims fail criterion (a) as well.

Links

Reference

• Wikipedia
• RationalWiki no information as of 2009-07-30
• LessWrong Wiki
• Conservapedia redirects to faith as of 2009-07-30: apparently cp does not acknowledge the idea of believing things because they can be observed
• dKosopedia
• SourceWatch