Article 1

BELIEF: AN OWNER’S MANUAL
ARTICLE 1
INTRODUCTION

Few people are capable of expressing with equanimity
opinions which differ from the prejudices of their social environment.
Most people are incapable of even forming such opinions.
– ALBERT EINSTEIN

Do you sometimes wonder why people believe the things they do? Do you wonder how they can be so sure of beliefs that differ dramatically from yours – even if those beliefs obviously mislead or hurt them? Do you wonder why people can be so easily led to view brutal and inhuman acts as virtuous?

Do you sometimes wonder why people have such a hard time understanding beliefs that differ from their own? Do you wonder why discussions of religion, politics, values, and/or personal identity so often put friendships at risk?

Do you sometimes wonder about the things you believe? Do you sometimes feel trapped by your beliefs? Do you wonder if you’d be happier seeing things differently?

Do you wish there were methods of evaluating, discussing, and comparing beliefs that could help believers become more open and objective? Do you wish there were techniques that could help people recognize and discard destructive beliefs? Do you wish there were ways to create common ground from which contrasting beliefs could be productively examined and discussed?

If issues like these matter to you, you’ve come to the right place. This website is devoted to a new approach to understanding the full range of beliefs – from those about the most mundane issues to those about the most profound. That approach makes it possible to assess and compare beliefs more objectively and discuss them more thoughtfully, productively and amicably.

If you master the skills this website offers, you’ll improve your ability to distinguish helpful beliefs from damaging ones. You’ll learn how harmful beliefs enslave believers, robbing them of happiness and effectiveness. And you’ll learn to believe beliefs that make your life better and to use those beliefs effectively.

This website is also intended to provide a forum in which you can
• share your conclusions about the worthiness of specific beliefs
• explore the logic that led you to those conclusions
• discuss, criticize, and suggest ways to improve this website’s approach to belief analysis

THE FOUNDATION OF THIS APPROACH TO BELIEF ANALYSIS

The approach to beliefs this website offers is grounded in a deceptively simple and self-evident answer to the question, “What makes a belief worth believing?” – A belief is worth believing if it provides the guidance that believers rely on it for.

Beliefs serve us well if they provide the guidance we expect them to provide. They serve us poorly if they don’t. They betray us if, while serving us poorly, they trick us into thinking they’re serving us well. And they addict us if accepting their guidance makes our lives worse, blinds us to the damage they cause, and encourages us to deepen our devotion to them in a vain attempt to make our lives better.

I think of beliefs as cognitive tools. As such, I evaluate them the way I evaluate other tools – by determining how well they do their jobs. I evaluate a hammer by determining how well it drives nails, how durable it is, how comfortable it is to use, and how effective it is at preventing stress injuries. I suspect your criteria for evaluating hammers are roughly the same because the process of evaluating such tools is intuitive and straightforward.

However, evaluating beliefs as tools requires conscious effort. In the absence of such effort, we are likely to give little thought to the nature of the guidance we expect from our beliefs and to misunderstand the nature of the guidance our beliefs provide.

Improving your ability to evaluate beliefs is simple – in principle. You just need to start paying attention to (1) the guidance you rely on your beliefs to provide, (2) the guidance your beliefs actually provide, and (3) the differences between your expectations and reality.

Improving the skill with which you use beliefs is equally simple – in principle. All you need do is bring the guidance you expect from your beliefs and the guidance they’re capable of providing into closer agreement.

A SELF-REFLEXIVE NOTE (FEEL FREE TO SKIP THIS SECTION IF IT DOESN’T INTEREST YOU.)   

If you are a critical reader, you may have noticed that the claim that beliefs are worthy of credence only if they provide the guidance that believers rely on them to provide can itself be considered a belief. Perhaps it even occurred to you that, thus regarded, the above claim is worthy of credence only if, by providing the guidance believers rely on it to provide, it provides a firm foundation for belief analysis.

Thankfully, the analytic techniques detailed in later articles reveal that the belief in question provides that foundation. But regrettably, the conclusions suggested by those analytic techniques are, in turn, beliefs, as are any conclusions about those conclusions, etc. Thus, the standard by which I suggest that beliefs be judged is vulnerable to infinite regress.

Does the specter of infinite regress compromise the utility of this approach to belief analysis? Pace Sextus Empiricus and his disciples, I think not. After all, this approach does not presume to offer truths, but merely tools. I do not claim that those tools are flawless. I claim only that they can be useful if wielded with skill and care.  

Nor do I make any claims about the devices used to craft those tools, or the devices used, in turn, to craft those devices. I do not believe that it is necessary to do so because the  utility of the tools this website offers can be determined without knowledge of the devices or processes used in their creation.               

Ultimately, it will be up to you to determine the value of the conceptual and procedural tools inspired by the notion that a good belief is one that provides the guidance believers rely on it to provide . . . and its corollary: that any belief that fails to provide such guidance is, to that extent, not only flawed, but quite possibly dangerous. When you have mastered the concepts and skills presented on this website, I invite you to share your observations on the Welcome Page.

A WARNING

Although I did my best to keep this article and those that follow short and simple, understanding them is likely to be challenging.

Understanding these articles is likely to be emotionally challenging because they encourage you to reject the certainty most persons find comforting and to embrace uncertainty, to act with caution, and to adopt a profound, disciplined humility. Understanding these articles is also likely to be emotionally challenging because doing so requires defying social conventions that shield beliefs from criticism, suppress meaningful discussion of their virtues and failings, and alienate believers from skeptics.

These articles are likely to be intellectually challenging because they describe an approach to evaluating beliefs that differs radically from approaches that most authorities unquestioningly accept. Mastering this approach requires learning new technical terms, developing new skills, and overcoming deeply ingrained habits of thought that hamper attempts to assess beliefs fairly and discuss them objectively.

These articles are written to be read slowly and repeatedly, to be discussed, to be analyzed, to be criticized, to be challenged, and to be applied. They are perhaps closest in spirit to an owner’s manual that would, in an ideal world, accompany consequential beliefs. Mastery of the ideas these articles contain is most effectively achieved as one would master a mathematical discipline – by first reading passages that explain each of that discipline’s concepts, then deepening your understanding of those concepts by attempting to apply them.

As such, you’ll find exercises designed to help you understand this approach to belief analysis throughout these articles. Each of those exercises, it is hoped, will help you refine one or more skills you’ll need to answer the question, “Is the belief I’ve chosen to examine worthy of my credence?”

I hope that this approach to evaluating beliefs adds to your joys and subtracts from your sorrows. I am always glad to offer help, to think seriously about your critiques, and to share your joys. I look forward to hearing from you.

 

EXERCISE 1:
BECOMING AWARE OF YOUR THOUGHTS AND FEELINGS
ABOUT BELIEFS

Reread the text above, recording thoughts, feelings, and questions as they arise.