The Right to Believe, and the Nature of Belief
It is your right to believe whatever you want. But what about when beliefs interfere with other people’s beliefs or lack thereof? What about when beliefs cause division and hatred between people? Some people’s beliefs can even cause them to violate the rights of others, sometimes going as far as harming them physically.
In Mindful Modes of Thinking I talked a bit about the differences between knowing, trusting some information, believing, and faith. Believing in something is thinking or wanting something to be true, even though there may not be evidence to back up the claim. Sometimes people believe they have evidence, but don’t clearly understand what qualifies as evidence. Beliefs also hold a lot of emotion, conviction, or what people refer to as faith.
That’s not to say a belief is by nature wrong, but simply that you don’t know if it’s correct, or even close to being valid, yet the claim is made that it is true. Belief, by nature, is problematic.
In spite of the nebulous nature of belief, many people hold onto all kinds of beliefs from religious to superstitious to stereotypes to faulty memories. Along with belief is a certain amount of faith, determination boosted by some emotion or fear.
Personal belief may be a right, but it’s our right to let you know loudly when your beliefs infringe on our human rights, when your beliefs discriminate against us, when your beliefs hurt and demoralize us, when your beliefs are based on ignorance and oppression.
Arguing over beliefs
These problems often arise when the belief is around a god or religion. While people have the right to believe in a god, others have the right not to share that belief, and yes, even the right to criticize it. The second you make a personal belief public, it’s up for grabs.
The nature of belief is a slippery slope because of the lack of evidence. If there were evidence, it would be verifiable and belief wouldn’t even be necessary. It would be known. Scientists are generally careful to say when something is their opinion, when they suspect some information is valid, and when they propose a theory with hard core evidence that can be tested by peers.
Belief in itself operates in the opposite way. It can’t be verified, and therefore you can not expect others to accept it. I’d also go as far as to say you should question, examine, and tear down all your beliefs and be honest about what they really are.
Can we say something does not exist? No, we can’t prove something doesn’t exist. Because of that, the burden of proof is never on the non-believer. Proof must always be the burden of the one making the claim something exists or is true.
Evolution for instance has been proven to be true in a variety of ways:
- Inheritance has been proven within the personal experience of having children and seeing the similarities and differences, and recreating and testing in the lab.
- Domestic selection is common and well know in breeding plants and animals, so it becomes an easy thing for us all to observe natural selection in nature. This is also observable in the lab.
- Fossils going back millions of years for a wide range of plants and animals. We can all go to museums to see theses amazing findings.
- Genetic evidence in modern times looking at the changes in DNA for various species and seeing when they split off from each other (this evidence has been fascinating and overwhelming in proving evolution)
Evolution is not under dispute because of the overwhelming evidence, but some of the details within evolution are under interesting debate, such as why we evolved to walk upright, which primitive man developed cognitive abilities, why did certain species have various mutations.
The god belief is one that is particularly erosive to our society because it’s based in old customs and attitudes that are inappropriate for today. When people with god beliefs feel they have the right to impose their beliefs on others through government and schools, then they violate the rights of others. God beliefs are often divisive and demoralizing to others, violating people’s human rights. This is when belief is no longer a personal right but become a public affront and menace. This is why we must protect separation of church and state, and keep religion out of schools.
You have the right to personal, private beliefs, and to share them with others. But when you cross boundaries and offend others by trying to take away their right to believe something else or not to believe you, such as in not allowing gays to marry, shaming women for various reasons, removing a woman’s right to her body, etc., name calling at atheists, then your belief is going to come under harsh scrutiny and attack.
I urge people to be as skeptical of their own thoughts and beliefs as they are of others. Examine your view every time you say something is true, or you believe in something. Examine the very nature of belief itself and see how it feels to just let go of the beliefs you’ve been carrying around. Is a belief really worth all the angst it causes? It really is ok to say often, “I don’t know.”
Tags: beliefs, correctness, ignorance, rights
