It is tempting to assume that belief held without enactment is merely passive, inert, ineffective, but is this really so? In the dynamic of passive consent, those who hold a belief passively may be complicit with those who act out a mutual belief, even when they act it out in ways that are objectionable to the passive believers.
The belief that the American government could not act harmfully against its own citizens is more potent that any proof that it is doing so. The shift of syntax liberates the mind to inquire if wrongdoing does in fact occur, and if it does, to detect how it occurs. Operating through the syntax “it just could not be so,” preemptive belief automatically dismisses rational inquiry and obscures critical observation.
What is reflex belief? The best way to define it is by example: If I believe in the Darwinian notion of survival of the fittest, it is likely that I will also believe that holding this belief gives me an edge in the struggle to survive. Here the objective of belief, the issue on which […]
Phantom Belief It is often said that belief is a powerful incentive to human action. Believing that we can do something renders us more able to do it, more confident and inspired. In this sense William James called ‘the will to believe’ a potent factor in human motivation. Doing so, he did not endorse the […]
They are pre-formulated in the code language of the brain, installed in neurolinguistic circuits. Normally we act from these beliefs without needing to formulate them in a direct statement of any kind. For instance, we act on our beliefs about the personal soul (11) or social reward (14) without a moment’s consideration of what we actually believe regarding those issues. The belief simply impels us.
In practice, it is more interesting (as well as more instuctive) to consider how a belief works than to take an outright stance for or against it. The specific terms proposed for the various kinds of belief listed here can be helpful in assuming a metacritical stance rather than an oppositional one. They are called […]
In applied metahistory, a belief that cannot be refuted by evidence is called resolute. A resolute belief is beyond being proven or disproven through evidence or logic, entirely immune to critique. Therein lies its strength: because it cannot be proven, it doesn’t have to be. Resolute beliefs form the core structure of all world religions and most philosophies, as well as the theoretical assumptions that underpin modern science.
By themselves the Archons can do nothing but insinuate. They rely heavily on our tendency to give over our power by wrong use of imagination. Our problem — without question, the single most threatening spiritual problem of our species — is that we do not adequately or consistently distinguish the true from the fantastic imagination.