The motives of our beliefs

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What is the motive of your belief?

Or your scepticism?

I think my motive is to fend off the great unknown, so to speak. To create a wall between my own little world and the unintelligible void that is the world without answers.
I seek answers, and where there are none I seek ways to trust without terms. It's a fine line, but I am often reminded of the fact that it does not truly matter what is truth and what is myth.
Beyond the horizon of my senses everything is abstract.
But the form of this abstract is not as important as the shape it takes after being filtered through my beliefs and expectations of it.
This shape is the one I can live with, function and prosper. The truth molded to fit my eyes.
The same truth will look different through your eyes, and that's why we can never totally understand eachother.
Unless we remember the motives of our beliefs.

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I can't conjur a single motive for myself. I just see things that way, and that's it.

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I found out recently (reading New Scientist) that I may be defined as an "exceptionist" when it comes to morality (and thinking in general). It's the opposite of an "absolutist".

It means that whenever someone presents an absolute to me, such as "killing is wrong", I immediately look for exceptions that disqualify that statement. I imagine many skeptics, atheists and scientists share this quality.

It certainly helped me understand my rather complex position on abortion. (ie I don't like it, would rather it never happened, but I think it should be legal, free and available everywhere)

As to WHY I tend to think in ways that they defined as "exceptionist", I'm not really sure, but probably has more to do with my parenting than anything else.

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I am such an exceptionist!

Except when I...

I mean...

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Exceptionist vs absolutist...

Curious wording.

It seems to me that the first is a person who can think for himself, while the latter is not. But I suspect we're all a blend of the two.
Come to think, a person with opinions entirely based on personal experience is something quite exceptional these days. And not neccesarily something good... Smile

Edgar

I understand what you mean. I sometimes wonder if it is just my biological "wiring" that causes me to understand things the way I do. Social conditioning is less relevant, I think, since people subjected to the same influences can have completely different outcomes.

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It is impossible, or nearly so, that anyone would devise a belief system from scratch, which were not influenced by anyone else's belief. That would only be possible with someone who grew up alone, and invented langauge for him- or herself, and proceeded to attempt an explanation of the cosmos.

People have beliefs, or reject beliefs, because they have belief thrust upon them from the earliest days they can recall. Their acceptance, rejection or modification of belief is entirely idiosyncratic.

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The why does one brother reject the family's creed while the other embraces it?

You have the ability to reject or discredit any external influence. I believe that the way I percieve the world is the way I've done since day one, and all the beliefs that have been thrust upon me, all the habits I've been taught, are subject to this reaction. This reaction is not a product of this influence.

I agree that this process is idiosyncratic (had to look that one up Smile

) but that does not support your statement that it has to stem from what has been thrust upon us.

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You speak in terms of reject, discredit and embrace. Whatever your reaction, you didn't come with the belief set wired into your brain--you reacted for "better" or for "worse" to what was presented to you.

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Agreed. I didn't come with a belief set wired into my brain.

But the way I apply this belief set may be wired into my brain.

If this wasn't so, I find it hard to explain why I am capable of rejecting or accepting new ideas I come across. Or why I'm capable of rejecting dogmas that have been fed me from the beginning.

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Re: The motives of our beliefs

Cyracuz wrote:

What is the motive of your belief?

My belief is that reality is consistant in following its own laws and structures, and that I am capable of perceiving and understanding those laws and structures.

The motive for my belief is that it is comfortable and highly functional for me to think this way. I suspect that my brain is hard wired to be more efficient, and therefor, more comfortable assuming that things are not supernatural and arbitrarily manipulated by illogical whims of extra-natural sources.

In short, I believe in naturalism because it's asthetically pleasing, and because it helps me compete in my engineering based cultural environment.

I believe that the asthetically pleasing part came first, and was reinforced (or not de-inforced), by successful application over the years.

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Thaks for a good answer rosborne.

I think it can be helpful to understand why we believe as we do in order to understand our own beliefs a little better. To make us see clearer just what and who we are day by day.

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Cyracuz wrote:

Thaks for a good answer rosborne.

I think it can be helpful to understand why we believe as we do in order to understand our own beliefs a little better. To make us see clearer just what and who we are day by day.

It was a good question.

I have often wondered why people think the way they do when at the core of everything is an arbitrary choice of paths. Even though science projects non-arbitrary conditions, naturalism underlies science, and naturalism is a belief, it's not a "known" condition.

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The motives of our beliefs

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