tooly wrote:
"Joseph H" <joseph@humanisation.org> wrote in message
news:1119302525.756088.39200@g43g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
Sir Frederick wrote:
Our primate brain is structured to support that
folk theory function 'believe'.
But why?
Why invest so much energy in such a function?
And if we have so invested such energy does this mean that we need to
believe forever? So...does this mean that belief is not a passing
substitue for knowledge but a fundamental need we possess? And why do
we have such a need? For what purpose? To explain? To console? Or...to
confer value on what we do?
Is a human being without value like an egg withour salt?
Profound, baby!
I'm just curious, where do you think your argument leads?
Is knowledge and belief perhaps of the same thing, but to a differing
degree?
Hi Tooly
I'm not sure I have an argument here. More a question, I think.
Somewhere in these postings I remarked that belief may be seen two ways
- either "belief that...something is true" or "belief in, support for,
value...something". I know the two morph on occasion.
The former sense I see as a substitute for knowledge in the case of
lack of knowledge. There's also the inertia factor here in the sense
that once something becomes part of our identity it is really hard to
remove it. That's why I campaign so hard for knowledge of our situation
and for propagation of that knowledge. In time - I hope - we will take
that knowledge on board. In time...
The second sense is more complex, I think. We don't need to value. We
can survive without it. But - generally - we perform better when we
value; we are more content etc. In that second sense I feel that belief
benefits us.
Where does my argument lead? Good question. You will have seen, I'm
sure, my speculations regarding something I call Humanisation - a
society appropriate to or commensurate with human capabilities. Not
Utopia, just a society where human beings are free to express and
realise their natural abilities (such as to create, to explore, to
manufacture, to speculate...). There are still many areas of the world
where people are not free to so express themselves, where they are
constrained by local fiat or taboo or belief. But - and I'm coming to
my point - throughout most of the so-called Western World we have
reached this stage. But we hardly see it. Our individualism and our
rights and our wealth so consume our minds that we have no sense of
human achievement. This I regard as a loss, a depletion, a lost
opportunity for valuation on our parts.
So - in short - I wish to restore the place of belief..in ourselves. I
know people may counter with litanies of failure and abuse etc - but
these are inevitable in the natural course of history and, I suggest,
we will end them, or reduce them greatly, all the sooner once we
establish a sense of the natural course of our own history and what we
should expect from existence.
Best wishes
Joseph H
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