Seems to me that a belief, as used by religious people, is a collection of assumptions which cannot be verified and logically reconciled to the external world? In my opinion, people often believe what they have been taught, and fortify this stance in their mind, no matter how much it stands in direct opposition to their experiential life.
Sometimes people assert that they found the truth after a long rational search for the truth. The irony of stating, I found religion, after a rational and thorough research of all the religions, evolution and philosophies is not lost on me. No one can process all the major religions, understand them in their lifetime, unless maybe they made it their life's work. Believing in things like floating axes, talking snakes & donkeys, the earth standing still for 24 hours, dead people coming back to life, ect. are far outside any use of the word rational and in my opinion, reasonable.
Evidence is often interpreted to fit a person's beliefs. The belief holds supremacy and must not be contradicted. In many cases, people bolster a personal belief, in which they are emotionally involved i.e. going to a church, baptizing, confession, reading their holy books, going to their schools, marrying under their codes, believing in their creeds, etc, so attempting to resolve directly experienced contradictions often leads to creative rationalizations which are produced to reduce experiential dissonance.
A clear example in my own life was my belief that homosexuality was a moral wrong. I didn't have this view until I was introduced to it via a biblical education. I wasn't show evidence that homosexuality was immoral, I was taught that it was wrong based on writings in both the Old Testament and the New Testament (neither of which use science, or vetted evidence to prove the claims). All through my five years of accredited Christian college, five years of accredited seminary/graduate school and decades of church attendance, I was never introduced to any science that explained why being a homosexual was dangerous, unethical, immoral or psychologically harmful.
Rather, I was given information that it led to pedophilia, or moral corruption, damnation to hell, demonization, being turned over to Satan for purification or torment, worldly thinking vs. spiritual thinking, corruption of children, porn addiction, aids, death, unhealthy views of relationships, personal unhappiness, destruction of society and the family unit, and so on.
When I was a pastoral counselor, I counseled a Christian man who struggled to live a heterosexual life style even though he was attracted to men. He claimed he was unhappy and the source of his homosexuality was probably based on sexual abuse between him and an adult male when he was a minor. Nevermind that he was also abused by an adult female teacher in high school.
He eventually died of aids, but before that happened, I spend many an hour listening to him and counseling him. I even went to his hospital bedside on more than one occasion. Even though he had lesions on his body and was wasting away in bed, I hugged him and cared for him. I prayed with him and did what I could to encourage him to look to Jesus. In the end he kept to his anti-homosexual faith. He died believing this because our common faith demanded it. At that time, I thought I did everything I could to be God's hand in his life. My intent to help him was about as pure as I could humanly achieve with a religious faith such as mine. I was doing what Jesus wanted me to do...love the sinner, but not the sin.
Years later I eventually re-examined my views on homosexuality. I can honestly say, that no where is there any science that proves being gay leads to any of those things I was taught to believe. I have gay friends who come from great families, don't have abuse in their background, and don't feel any cognitive dissonance about being gay. In short, I can't find, an across the board, basis for asserting that being gay is a negative lifestyle.
I often think of the famous line used by soldiers in war crimes, "I was just following orders". Yeah, I was just following my beliefs sir. I had good intent ma’am. I was taught to be prejudiced based on a set of beliefs from both Jewish history and Christian history. I find it tragic that I didn't really help this man find peace. I contributed to his dissonance and unrest. I gave him false hope and strung him along with beliefs I couldn't possibly know to be correct or rational. I wish I knew then what I know now!
I no longer believe that homosexuality is immoral or dysfunctional; I assert that it is neither. I can't find evidence that proves being gay contributes to social ills, or personal dysfunctions anymore than I can prove that being heterosexual contributes to illegitimate children or family system dysfunctions. Trusting in a belief is more akin to faith. It is trusting something to be true without proof and it leads to interpreting evidence according to the belief. The wonderful thing about being a skeptic is that I don't have to believe or have faith. I get to examine the evidence and seek the truth no matter where it leads me. Didn't Gil Grissom's character say, "We gotta follow the evidence, even if we don't like where it takes us?"
Sincerely,
Bill Jeffreys
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