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How important are beliefs?

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How important are beliefs?

silent surrender
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Posted 05/15/05 - 10:40 AM: Subject: How important are beliefs?	#1
My belief's are very important to me. They are what drive me to do what I do and they are what influence my decisions. Recently I had someone tell me that beliefs aren't important, and that they aren't necessary. I tried to argue with him, but he simply wouldn't conceed to my point. What do you think? How important are beliefs to you, to life itself?
light and darkness are a fire and wind; fire brings warmth and comfort, yet it burns and withers everything it touches. Wind blows cold, lifting soil into the air, yet it also bears the seeds of the earth. Each then brings both life and death.

jaoman
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Posted 05/15/05 - 10:46 AM:	#2
Beliefs are that which construct the consciousness of all semi-intelligent and intelligent species. They aren't any more or less important than DNA.
"With no relation to class or social background, whether it suits them or not, people yearn for a dream. Sustained by a dream, hurt by a dream, revived by a dream, killed by a dream. And even after being abandoned by a dream, it continues to smolder from the bottom of one's heart... probably until the verge of death. A man should envision such a lifetime once. A life spent as a martyr to the god named "dream." - Kentaro Miura

Paradox
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Posted 05/15/05 - 11:42 AM:	#3
Did this person really believe that beliefs aren't necessary or important? Maybe he has a strong sense of irony. We can't go through life without any beliefs whatsoever - even if it's just things such as 'I believe that 10 minutes in the oven will sufficiently cook my pizza'. Beliefs based [usually] on past experience - either our own or other people's - drive all our decisions and actions, surely? If we didn't believe anything at all we'd never make any sort of progression in our lives. In some countries, if you believe the wrong things you can end up dead or in prison. For myself, the ability to question my beliefs is crucial. I constantly analyse my reasoning almost compulsively at times, because I'm aware that my mind frequently plays tricks on me. I have a mental illness, and what counts as 'proof' for most people - sensory perception for example - will often fail me, and leave me feeling very stupid and embarassed. So I try to be very careful and doubtful about what I 'believe' and look to other's opinions as guidance. That's enough for now, but I will elaborate if anybody is interested.
~ Paradox

Owen
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Posted 05/15/05 - 11:42 AM:	#4
silent surrender wrote: My belief's are very important to me. They are what drive me to do what I do and they are what influence my decisions. Recently I had someone tell me that beliefs aren't important, and that they aren't necessary. I tried to argue with him, but he simply wouldn't conceed to my point. What do you think? How important are beliefs to you, to life itself? Beliefs are assumed truths, imo. Thereby, they are very important to everyone. We cannot prove everything that we assume, even in our daily experiences. Most of what we call knowledge is belief. Even atheists, accept beliefs, i.e. axioms of understanding.

Chinaman
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Posted 05/15/05 - 11:44 AM:	#5
I will have to follow the words of the great master, with a slight modification of course. More important than having beliefs, is having the courage to attack one's beliefs! They are usefull inasmuch as they can show us what ideas have constructed who we are. After all, we need a starting point if we wish to do anything with our lives. On a pratical side, if people lacked beliefs I would no longer have flatheads to debate with...my life would be very boring. - CM

Ochre Inoue
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Posted 05/15/05 - 06:54 PM:	#6
DNA is in every organism, basic to advanced. How can you compare belief and DNA in importance? Belief is something unique to intelligent beings. Practically speaking, belief is less important than DNA in life survival. But, belief is a very important factor to the way we function in society and as individual-intelligences. Belief is important in law, communication, religion, and science. Also, belief does not construct consciousness of all semi-intelligent (onward) beings. Humans are born with consciousness, are they also born with beliefs? Babies aren't intelligent, but they certainly are semi-intelligent and on their way to full intelligence. Beliefs are more important to identity and our understanding of universe. Belief is not necessary for consciousness. Consciousness is necessary for belief.
"The whole secret of existence is to have no fear. Never fear what will become of you, depend on no one. Only the moment you reject all help are you free." -Vivekananda

Demostenes
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Posted 05/16/05 - 01:09 PM:	#7
Beliefs are like DNA for our mind. Everything we think about is a belief or instinct and instincts come from DNA.
"The error with humans is not what they know, its what they think they know ain't so" -Mark Twain

Morrandir
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Posted 05/16/05 - 01:57 PM:	#8
In the standard way of seeing knowledge, belief is a key ingredient in it. If you claim that beliefs have no relevance, you will have to say that knowledge has no relevance. If on the other hand knowledge is seen as important, then beliefs must be that too. I wonder what your "someone" thought was necessary then. Mostly one should be able to clarify exactly to what something is or is not necessary for. If he is a realist, then perhaps he was simply saying that the world would continue its existence regardless of our beliefs about it. To the existence of the world, beliefs are not necessary - or might in quite a host of philosophical views, but if we set that aside and consider this in a more general sense. If one thinks of beliefs as necessary for humans, then I cannot really see how we could have a human being without beliefs, and still have a normal human being. It depends, of course, whether beliefs are to be conscious beliefs, but if we say that beliefs are dispositions of an organism to act in a certain way, then all organisms that do not function in a wholly arbitrary way depend on beliefs. If we take beliefs to mean something that one should cognize in a way, then beliefs are simply necessary for a conscious mind. In any case, beliefs are necessary for your "someone". If he wants to go on and claim that beliefs aren't necessary for the greater scheme of the world, then he is free to do so, but I would echo Paradox's comment: this too is a belief about things, and so his view makes no sense without beliefs - and therefore, beliefs are necessary for his view to make any sense. ~M~
Philosophy is disciplined bewilderment. A mathematician is a person who thinks that if there are supposed to be three people in a room, but five come out, then two more must enter the room in order for it to be empty. http://www.beyondappearances.com

Nonblack Raven
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Posted 05/17/05 - 05:14 AM:	#9
silent surrender wrote: My belief's are very important to me. They are what drive me to do what I do and they are what influence my decisions. Recently I had someone tell me that beliefs aren't important, and that they aren't necessary. I tried to argue with him, but he simply wouldn't conceed to my point. What do you think? How important are beliefs to you, to life itself? Is it possible that the person was arguing for eliminative materialism: http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/materialism-eli...
NBR

darkcrow
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Posted 05/17/05 - 08:12 AM:	#10
silent surrender wrote: My belief's are very important to me. They are what drive me to do what I do and they are what influence my decisions. Recently I had someone tell me that beliefs aren't important, and that they aren't necessary. I tried to argue with him, but he simply wouldn't conceed to my point. What do you think? How important are beliefs to you, to life itself? Oh, God should forbid these philosophers who thrive on intellectual disputation like a Lion on a carcass. Ask any Theater Director; what you believe is what you are. “I am” is the beginning of the many different identities we all possess, a Husband, a Father, a Plummer... the belief in your identities sits the pattern for your reality— I am a Catholic, I am a Diabetic; life is an endless series of identities and it would be impossible for us to take on identities the Director wishes if we were operating without beliefs.
"To the success of our hopeless task."

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