The Seeker in me \u2013 Harry Baya <\/p>\n

I usually use the word \u201cbelief\u201d to mean something that I don\u2019t believe in. I don\u2019t believe in \u201cbelieving\u201d. I distinguish between \u201cbelieving\u201d and \u201cassuming\u201d. When a person assumes something it\u2019s usually their best guess as to what is so. In some cases it\u2019s not even that, it\u2019s just a guess they would like to live by for some reason. For example: \u201cI\u2019m going to assume that this man I just met and I are going to be good friends. I\u2019ll approach our relationship like that, and see what happens.\u201d<\/p>\n

We assume things because we think that living with that point of view may be useful. We remain open to changing the assumption if our experience implies that it would be useful to do so.<\/p>\n

Beliefs, as I see them, are not assumptions. They are fixed points of view that have somehow become part of how we define ourselves. When a person\u2019s beliefs are challenged or threatened, they become defensive, or offensive. They will often fight, or even die, to defend their beliefs. In my view we have relatively little immediate control over what we believe. We kind of end up believing things. In my view we don\u2019t get to choose what we believe.<\/p>\n

I think it\u2019s often hard to identify our beliefs. They are part of our mental paradigm. They are like a lens through which we experience reality. It\u2019s hard to see the lens we are looiking through. Though we cannot immediately change our beliefs, we are able to make some choices about them. <\/p>\n

(1) We can seek to identify them
\n(2) We can take steps to weaken, and maybe remove them.<\/p>\n

It is my intention to identify those things I \u201cbelieve\u201d (using my interpretation above) and to change them to assumptions. Some assumptions have a very high probability of being right. For example, I assume that if I drop something, it will fall down. I don\u2019t want to \u201cbelieve\u201d this, but I assume that it is extremely likely.<\/p>\n

I feel somewhat the same way about faith and hope. Faith, as I understand it, is to continue to believe that something is so, or will happen, even when experience does not confirm it. I\u2019ll be kind. Let\u2019s take \u201cbelief\u201d out of that sentence. Faith is to continue to assume something is so, or will happen, when experience does not confirm it, or even seems to contradict it.<\/p>\n

If experience confirmed it you would not need faith. You could just assume it was so based on experience. I consider faith an error in judgment. A mistake. It implies the ability to base your actions on something you wish were so, rather than your experience and knowledge. <\/p>\n

If the word faith is used to mean \u201cto live as if something were so, even though we don\u2019t believe it, or doubt it,\u201d then I can see that faith could be useful. I think there are often opportunities to make assumption that might be useful to live by for an individual. <\/p>\n

I have one of those. I choose to live my life in a certain way. I don\u2019t think it\u2019s what others should be doing. It\u2019s what I choose to do. Here it is:<\/p>\n

I choose to do all I can to never lie to anyone about anything, except in humor. I don\u2019t have \u201cfaith\u201d that this will make my life better. I choose to \u201cassume\u201d that it will make my life better. If I got strong evidence that it was not working, I would stop. So far, I think it has been useful to me.<\/p>\n

Hope, on the other hand\u2026 seems like a good thing. Hope is where you are able to see what you want to be, or want to become so. I like that. <\/p>\n

Having hope that something will work out can be a good thing. Having \u201cfaith\u201d that it will work out seems foolish to me, unless it means..\u201dI will choose to live my life as if it will work out, even though the odds of that happening are unknown, or low.\u201d <\/p>\n

One difference is that if you faith in something and it does not work out, you can feel betrayed, or somehow diminished. If you chose to live it as if it would work out and it doesn\u2019t, you just made a bad choice. Unfortunate, but not a betrayal.<\/p>\n

Ok, so I don\u2019t want to believe anything. Given that, how do I relate to the beliefs that seem to be an important part of most major religions : God, hell, heaven, sin, celestial policemen, life after death etc.<\/p>\n

First off, I don\u2019t want to belief any of that stuff. I also don\u2019t want to have faith in any of that stuff. However, I may sometimes choose to live my life as if some traditional \u201cbeliefs\u201d are correct. <\/p>\n

Operationaly I am an aetheist. Technically I guess I am an agnostic. I don\u2019t \u201cbelieve\u201d that there is no omniscient being who is aware of my every act and rewards me for some and punishes me for others. Rather I think it is extremely unlikely that such a being exists and acts in that way. I choose to live my life based on the assumption that no such being exists.<\/p>\n

This means, for me, there is no one to pray to in hope that they will respond. Prayer can still be good. It\u2019s a wonderful focusing experience. Positing a being who could help can be useful in praying, in focusing on what you want to be so. But I don\u2019t \u201cbelieve\u201d in such a being.<\/p>\n

My problem with the word atheist is that it sounds like it is opposed to something. It\u2019s a negative sounding title. Like being the \u201canti-christ\u201d or the \u201canti-god\u201d. I\u2019m not in active opposition to the believers of my world. I think they are very likely to believe a pack of lies, but so what. Those beliefs do not seem to make them less able to lead fulfilling lives, or be successful. I only have a problem when those beliefs result in bad things happening to others who don\u2019t hold the same beliefs. I have some concern that the believers of this planet are going to have a major role in destroying it. <\/p>\n

Just because a relgions belief structure is based on a pack of lies does not mean that their morals, values, and goals are all wrong. It just means that some of them could be wrong, but they would be unable to judge them fairly.<\/p>\n

I have not had a positive sounding label that I can use that would imply that (a) I think most of the belief structure of traditional religions is a pack of lies and that (b) I still think there are some wonderfully \u201cspiritual\u201d aspects of life and consciousness. By spiritual I mean to imply things like awesome, transcendent, deeply satisfying, bonding to universe, expanded awareness, and all that stuff. <\/p>\n

Based on recent reading, it looks like the label \u201cHumanist\u201d is the best I will find for now. So I guess I am a humanist. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Seeker in me \u2013 Harry Baya I usually use the word \u201cbelief\u201d to mean something that I don\u2019t believe in. I don\u2019t believe in \u201cbelieving\u201d. I distinguish between \u201cbelieving\u201d and \u201cassuming\u201d. When a person assumes something it\u2019s usually their best guess as to what is so. In some cases it\u2019s not even that, it\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":46,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[7],"class_list":["post-73","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-philosophy-religion","tag-belief-believing-faith-hope-humanist"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/boppers.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/boppers.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/boppers.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/boppers.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/46"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/boppers.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/boppers.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":76,"href":"https:\/\/boppers.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73\/revisions\/76"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/boppers.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/boppers.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/boppers.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}