Philosophy Now Forum

surreptitious57 wrote:I value thought over belief because it is a discipline interested in trying to understand the universe from as objective a perspective as possible Whereas belief is more interested in doing this from a subjective perspective that conforms to a pre conceived notion of the entity commonly known as God. A notion that is conveniently non falsifiable meaning it can never be disproven. However I am only interested in what actually exists not what may exist because I want it to. That is not the way reality works. Though either way what we think of it makes no difference
to how it actually functions. Even so it still makes more sense to be interested in it from an objective perspective and is therefore why I am

Belinda wrote:Surreptitious57 wrote:

However I am only interested in what actually exists not what may exist because I want it to. That is not the way reality works.

But sometimes beliefs do cause people in societies to act according to the beliefs. We often want what peer pressure or manipulation makes us believe; look at electioneering! The other cause of men's actions is material necessity.

I value beliefs because they are what make us just a little lower than the angels and they become what inspires humanity

Belinda wrote: ↑Tue May 16, 2017 8:03 am Commonsense wrote:

I value beliefs because they are what make us just a little lower than the angels and they become what inspires humanity

I suppose you mean good beliefs. I suggest that you want is good beliefs, and beliefs that are held lightly and with due humility to abandon them if they are not fit for purpose.

Science Fan wrote: ↑Sat May 27, 2017 9:42 pm Assuming the truth of the premises you set forth, that the Bible is an accurate historical writing, this does not support your conclusion. As historians will confirm, there are several levels of analysis when it comes to history. The first problem historians try to solve is figuring out what specific events actually occurred in the past. Assuming the truth of your premises, you are stating that this problem is already solved as we should accept the Bible as historically accurate. However, historians also try to figure out what caused the specific historical events of the past. This is not easy and historians often debate over what caused various historical events, from the industrial revolution, the outbreak of WWI, the Great Depression, etc. Even if we accepted your premises as true, we still would not know the actual causes of events depicted in the Bible. An even greater level of abstraction faced by historians is trying to relate the causes of past historical events to issues we presently face today. This would also be an issue for us, even if we assumed the Bible was 100% accurate. How would the causes of the events described in the Bible inform our understanding of social issues we face today? That would still be an open question, not answered by the contents of the Bible stories themselves.