Belief

https://barryhisblog.blogspot.com/p/belief.html

Various groups and fora often bring up the subject of belief.

Oxford Languages defines belief as

1. an acceptance that something exists or is true, especially one without proof. "his belief in extraterrestrial life"

2. trust, faith, or confidence in (someone or something). 

I'm talking about belief without proof, without adequate evidence and without sufficient reason. IOW, dogma. Absolute belief. Unshakeable belief. Certainty.

I will argue that these forms of belief are unnecessary, undesirable, or even dangerous.

The desire for such beliefs strikes me as a vice. It is a desire for a certainty that cannot exist except, perhaps, in the mind of the fanatical believer. It is better to live with uncertainty, with respect for others opinions, and enough openness to change one's own ideas. (But as they say, not so open that your brains might fall out. ;) 

Here is a section from Dr. Jacob Bronowski's mavellous series, The Ascent of Man (The title is a reference to Darwin's Descent of Man). If you haven't seen it, I beseech you, implore you, to watch it and think about it.

"The ends justify the means". This has been the rationale, the excuse, for all forms of man's inhumanity to man and the defilement of the planet and the living world, fuelled by the conviction that one is infallibly correct.

And many people do not understand science. It is not a body of certain, unchangeable knowledge but a program - a method for finding what is most likely to be true to the best of our abilities, and should always be humble and open to correction.

Examples of deadly, inhuman certainty include fanatical religious belief, belief in racial superiority, and the idea that communism is infallibly "scientific". These have given us the crusades, the inquisition, manifest destiny, the final solution of Nazism, the gulags, the killing fields of year zero, 9/11 and the Daesh.

All this got me thinking. Is belief necessary at all? Isn't it better to be humble - to think that whatever you are inclined to believe may be mistaken? I did an exercise to see if I believed anything in the sense that I have described, and if I could divest myself of such beliefs. I came down to the question, "Do I believe I exist?" Like the witty graffiti artist who wrote on a wall, "Descartes thought he was here", am I really here? Well, If I exist, I exist, whether I believe it or not is irrelevant. If I don't exist, who is this "I"? So belief in my existence is unnecessary and redundant. I can't think of any other beliefs that are necessary.

On the other hand, I can think of many beliefs that should be expunged.