val wrote:Frank
Belief must be understood in a psychological context. It is a conviction about something.
Right...it is a "conviction" about something unknown.
Frankly, most of the time, I pass right by stuff that is offered as "belief"...becuase I understand the people doing it are mostly saying "I estimate..." "I think..." or something of that sort.
But in a philosophy or religion discussion...I expect more.
Quote:If a belief can be supported by an acceptable criteria of validation, then your belief shows adequation to its object.
Don't know what that means...but I will agree that is a guess has a reason for being made...fine. It is a guess.
Quote:About knowledge. You don't know if there is a monitor or a keyboard in front of you. You can say that you see and touch a monitor or a keyboard. But in fact all you have is the optical and tactile sensations. Your eyes, your hands have feelings, due to your nervous system. But how can you demonstrate that those sensations are caused by an external stimulus?
So, you don't really know if there is a monitor.
Great!
And I can make that argument as well as the next person.
But if you are suggesting that because I do not know (in that context) there is a monitor or keyboard in use right now...somehow that equates with people offering "I know there are no gods..."...
...well, what can I say. We might as well not discuss the issue, because we are in different universes on the issue.
Quote:But you can believe in the reality of the monitor. I do. And why? Because this belief is much more evident than the belief that only your sensations exist. According to the way our mind works, it is more acceptable the idea that your sensations are caused by an external factor than the idea that you are creating those sensations.
I see!
I don't agree...but as I said earlier, I no longer have the capacity to make a coherent argument in favor of my position, so I will have to depend on the charity of others who agree with me in this regard to do it.
In the limit, I think that belief is all we have in order to make any kind of statement - except those statements where the predicate is already contained in the subject, the analytical propositions, like 2+2 = 4[/quote]