Don't Try to Choose Your Beliefs (page 2)

MrRoboto

It should be mentioned that while authentic beliefs can "happen to us without our concious attention" authentic beliefs can also be formed when we conciously examine evidence for/against an idea, even putting the "expert" beliefs or assertions to the test to (in)validate it.

when you refuse to do this, it may lead to actually choosing your belief by omitting pertinent information that could lead your belief system in another direction.

adhering to the many things we have been indoctrinated with (religious and otherwise) without setting out to honestly and without prejudice prove whether these things are true or not has the defacto result of choosing the indoctrinated thought structure (belief)

sometimes those who come here asking what to believe are simply in the middle of a belief system collapse and they should be supported to the extent possible, helping them to learn how to think if necessary but never what to think.

Thats my 2 cents anyway.

Finkelstein

...and isn't acquiring fact based knowledge from physical evidence more virtuous to mankind than simple beliefs composed of emotional theory, superstition, ignorance and fear ?

Many times reality is hard and difficult to cope with in the living experience, therefore is not better to understand reality to are best ability and deal with what is here than place hope and appealing wait for supernatural intervention to cure humanity's enduring perils ?

Brokeback Watchtower

I'm thinking of Socrates reading your OP. People feel comfortable believing, but there is a price one has to pay for such comfort from a religion that has all the simple answers to life.

Don't be in a hurry to find the answers of life and force belief. Be patient this is a life long process that only ends when you die,, for all we know. Be inquisitive, explore this world, never loose your childlike way of looking at the world. This all ends once you know all the answers.

I know that I am intelligent, because I know that I know nothing.
Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/authors/socrates

Phizzy

Thank you for your Thread Cofty, I am sure this excellent advice will help those who have recently left the bubble of ignorance that is JW Org. And thanks to the others who have added to this discussion.

When I left I decided because I had been duped all my life that the only way to be safe intellectually was to seek the evidence, test the evidence, and even then, keep an open mind for, and seek out, new evidence.

The problem for many JW's is that they were forced to let others do their research and thinking for them, they were encouraged to be intellectually lazy, most never read even the Org's stuff with any real attention or thought.

It comes hard to become a real student when this has been your lifetimes habit, it's a bit like someone who has always been a couch potato having to take up exercise.

I have always loved reading, and loved acquiring knowledge, but this is not so for most JW's. But the only way to be able to trust your own conclusions is to follow the steps you,and others, have outlined.

Please XJW's, put in the effort, once you really have "made the (real) truth your own" it is so satisfying, healing and helps you mature as a person. Go for it !

cofty

keep it clean until you research thoroughly and then you can start building up a reliable knowledge bank - sparrowdown

This is the key thing. When you begin to research information on a controversial topic it's too easy to side with the first thing you read. Like a jurist keeping an open mind until you have a clear grasp of both sides is not easy.

Drearyweather

The Cambridge Dictionary defines belief as the feeling of being certain that something exists or is true.

If one can question the existence of God, then each and every religion, sect and cult and religious belief out there can be debated or debunked.

Can all beliefs be classified as right or wrong? or does it depend upon perspective?

For e.g. Are the following random statements actually beliefs or perspectives?

I believe in God

I believe that God does not exist.

I no longer believe in the truthfulness of politics because of the high rate of corruption in my country

I don't believe in the arrangement of marriage.

LV101

DITTO Scary21! You are a Science Guru and have educated many of us -- thank you!

James Brown

Cofty that sounds like good advice.

sparrowdown

Was it Aristotle who said something about "... being able to entertain a thought without accepting it."?

Xanthippe

It's true you don't need to choose beliefs. If you keep reading and exploring new ideas after you leave the religion then beliefs will be the things that fall between the facts that you are absolutely sure of, things that are scientifically proven beyond reasonable doubt for example. Beliefs will be the things that you can see a lot of evidence for and that fit your world model so far but you are not 100% sure of yet.

Don't Try to Choose Your Beliefs

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