Over on the Patheos New Visions channel, Karl Forehand has a post that got my attention. It’s titled All Beliefs are Assumptions.
I’m in agreement with his core points: indoctrination is bad, community is good, and we should be honest with ourselves and with each other about the limitations of what we know and what we can know.
At the same time, to declare “all beliefs are assumptions” puts all beliefs on the same level. It ignores the fact that while all beliefs are uncertain (otherwise they’d be facts), some beliefs are more likely to be true than others. More importantly, some beliefs are helpful and other beliefs are harmful.
Whether we are “deconstructing” an old religion (which seems to be the context of Forehand’s post), working to recover from toxic religion, or trying to build a spiritual framework that works for us, it’s important to understand the concept of belief and to make sure what we believe is something that’s meaningful and helpful to us, and not what we were told we had to believe.
What is belief?
Belief is accepting something as true without proof that it is true.
This isn’t a bad thing. It’s a necessary thing. The world is far too big and far too complicated for each of us to personally validate that everything we encounter is either true or not true. We believe the TV weather person when they say it’s going to rain tomorrow… and if we’re wise, we pay attention when they say there’s an 80% chance of rain and not a 100% chance.
Is that an assumption? Yes, but it’s a reasonable assumption. The TV weather person is a trained meteorologist, who bases their forecast on computer models that have proven to be reliable in the past, tempered with their own projections. Our assumptions are supported by evidence… even though we know that sometimes the weather does things that are totally unexpected.
[The devaluation – and in many cases, the outright rejection – of subject matter experts is a major problem for our current society. That’s another rant for another time.]
A belief isn’t an assumption. It’s something we build off of our assumptions about the world and how it works, about which sources of information we can trust and which sources we can’t. This is why it’s important to have a strong metaphysics.
Some things require belief
The weather forecast is one thing. What comes after death is something very different.
There is no hard data for life after death or for the existence of the Gods. But while we have no proof such things exist, we have evidence.
Animism points us toward the primacy of consciousness and away from the primacy of matter. The seasons and cycles of nature point us toward a cyclical model of life and away from a linear model. Past life memories strongly indicate that there’s something more than this one life in this one world.
Proof? No. Evidence? Yes. Choose what seems most likely to you.
Almost 10 years ago I wrote this:
Do your beliefs about the afterlife help you face your inevitable death with confidence? Or – like so many who worry about heaven and hell – do they fill you with fear and dread?
Does your contemplation of death remind you to live fully here and now, to make the most of every day? Or does it push you to ignore this beautiful world and focus on earning a better place in an afterlife that may not even exist?
Does the reality of untimely deaths motivate you to build a better world for all? Or does it tell you not to bother, because everything will be OK for them on the other side?
What we believe isn’t nearly as important as what we do with our beliefs.
Some beliefs are cultural preferences
Too many times, when people say their “deeply held religious beliefs” cause them to take a political position, they’re not expressing a metaphysical proposition or claiming that reason and experience have led them to a religious conclusion. Instead, they’re expressing an intuitive preference for one cultural norm over all others.
Christian fundamentalists mistake Ancient Near East culture for “the word of God.” Or they mistake white nationalism for eternal truth.
On one hand, this is understandable. The idea that religion is all about what you believe is a mistake. For most people in most of the world throughout most of history, religion was and is about what you do, who you are, and whose you are. The problem comes when people think that their particular religion – based on their particular cultural norms – is a universal religion intended for everyone everywhere.
And that idea leads them to assume they’re entitled to enforce their religion on other people who don’t share their culture or their foundational assumptions about the world and how it works.
Some beliefs are so unlikely we can dismiss them – and we should
I’m a Pagan who practices magic and worships many Gods. I live in a glass house and so I try not to throw stones.
But if we are honest – with each other and especially with ourselves – we will understand that while uncertainty leaves room for many different beliefs, it does not leave room to believe anything we want.
We do not know the ultimate origin of the Universe. I suspect that’s not just beyond our knowledge, but beyond our capacity to know. Still, while we are free to speculate about how things began, some ideas are more likely than others. Young Earth Creationism – the idea that humans were created in our current form 6000 years ago – is demonstrably false.
And if your religious “metanarrative” is dependent on Young Earth Creationism, the proper response is to find another metanarrative, not to twist yourself into metaphysical knots to prop up something that clearly isn’t true.
Belief is not the most important thing
The idea that religion is all about which set of supernatural propositions you accept and which ones you reject is a modern, Western, Protestant thing.
Marcus Aurelius almost certainly did not say it, but it’s still true:
Live a good life. If there are Gods and they are just, then they will not care how devout you have been, but will welcome you based on the virtues you have lived by. If there are Gods, but unjust, then you should not want to worship them. If there are no Gods, then you will be gone, but will have lived a noble life that will live on in the memories of your loved ones.
Your beliefs don’t make you a good person – your actions do.
Are your beliefs helpful or harmful?
We should try to believe things that are likely to be true and not believe things that are likely to be false. At the same time, given the uncertainty around big religious questions, truth is an impossible standard by which to judge our beliefs and especially the beliefs of others.
But we can judge beliefs by the results the create.
Do your beliefs inspire you to live in harmony with other people, other animals, and the rest of Nature? Or do they tell you you’re special and entitled to rule over others?
Do your beliefs help you to live according to your highest values and virtues, or do they tell you do mindlessly obey someone’s arbitrary rules?
Do your beliefs help you to deal with the mysteries of birth and death, and the reality of your own death? Or do they fill you with fear and dread for an afterlife that may or may not actually exist?
Some beliefs are helpful and other beliefs are harmful. Let’s support the ones that are helpful.
Most people believe what they’ve always been told to believe
The Jesuits say “give me the boy until he is seven and I will give you the man.”
When we’re children, we believe what we’re taught. Of course we do – even the smartest among us are young, ignorant, and naïve. The problem is that most people never move beyond this – they never think to question what they were told was true. If we’re mindful, though, at some point the problems start to appear.
Why is our religion right and everyone else is wrong? Why would a supposedly all wise, all powerful, and all loving God create a world with such needless and abject suffering? Why would such a God create a system where the vast majority of people are going to end up in eternal torment?
Our problem is that by the time we start asking these questions, these toxic belief are already embedded into our brains – into our souls. We may say we don’t believe them anymore, but the stories and songs and sermons are still there.
Getting them out took me many, many years.
Replacing toxic beliefs with something helpful is good and necessary
It’s not enough to say “I don’t believe that anymore.” That’s a good start, but we have to crowd out bad beliefs with good beliefs, crowd out bad experiences with good experiences. That’s a lot of work. But it’s necessary work. If we don’t, those toxic beliefs will seep back into our lives.
Cut your cords – burn your bridges. Get away from toxic religion and stay away.
Read, study, and practice. Learn to recognize old and unhelpful ways of thinking. Find a group to practice with – you need the support of likeminded people.
Examine your foundational assumptions about the world and how it works. What do you really believe, why do you believe it, and do you want to continue to believe it?
Is what you believe true, or at least plausible?
Beliefs are more than assumptions. Let’s make sure our beliefs are meaningful and helpful to us and to the wider world.
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