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January 29, 2003
The case for disbelief
Jim wrote Sunday about The Case for Belief. Though belief has many applications and implications, most often religious, inherently we are believing creatures who live and work based on our beliefs, secular and religious.
I'd like to make the case for disbelief (or unbelief), and the importance of disbelief before belief.
As a believer, I have found that often the most difficult barrier is getting others to believe in what I believe. This would be simple if they didn't believe already. The toughest person to convince and engage is one who believes differently than I do, or worse, that what I believe is wrong.
Worse yet is changing my own beliefs and disbeliefs. Many of these are so innate, they influence me subconciously in ways I am not even aware of.
Belief, whether it be religious or secular, in a vision or a person or a concept, is achieved through repeated recognitions of conflicting beliefs and disbeliefs, and replacing those with stronger beliefs. Though there are times when an irrefutable belief is formed quickly, my experience has been that belief is formed and strengthened as an iterative process of self-discovery and increased awareness.
Posted by pete at January 29, 2003 10:29 PM
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