Beliefs and Convictions

Righto, its almost 4 am, i have just illegally watched "Cloverfield" online and now am in the mood for a bit of philosophical blogging.......this is rare folks...so yeah......

Now I as you probably already know from my earlier posts and if you don't i'll let you know now that i am not a man of religion.

Now before you go on reading this post, allow me to stress a few points here. As usual, i do not intend to force my views and perceptions of religion down your throat. What i have to say in this post has nothing whatsoever to do with refuting or accepting the existance of God, TheEnergy, Him .....anything else depending on your own religious or scientific views on the entire matter.

No, i do not intend to insult my dear friends, many of which are in fact devout followers of religions of sorts.

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What i intend to chat about today is about one matter and one matter only........BELIEVES.

What on earth is a belief?

I'm going to snub the dictionary this once (just an excuse for me being too lazy to open it at the moment....come on...its 4 am and i'm sleepy)....and i'm going to talk about what i feel a belief is.

Belief is in one word "Conviction". It is or are a concept or a collection of concepts one believes in with such conviction to the extent that one's life is primarily either consciously or subtly influenced by it.

Everyone has beliefs and it is that which governs how one leads his or her life.

You might be getting the idea at this moment that i'm going to depart on a long and detailed discussion on the matter or principles and morals and sprituality and what not. The whole idea of leading your life in accordance to a set of convictions.......sounds pretty much like something driven by principles of sorts....even to me.


Nopes.


My creativity is at an all time low at the moment (yes i know i have been giving this excuse a lot, live with it)....so i'm just going to give you here an example of what in my opinion is a belief.


Gravity.


Think about it. Everyone, regardless of race, religion, background (i can go on you know).....believes in it. You do not question it. You accept it. Why?

It all boils down to the mere fact that it is extremely believable. You feel its effects. You compute it in Physics class. You used it in your exams. Its in textbooks. The fact that you are in fact governed by it might be the common explanation for why you so convincingly believe in it...........despite the fact that it is in fact a half proven concept.

The origin of gravity you might argue HAS been proven by Einsteins fabulous Space-Time fabric distortion concept....highly detailed in his papers on the General Theory of Relativity. May i take a moment to stress here that it is in fact a theory....for the moment. Yes, to some extent, the mathematical proof is beyond doubt, however as for the physical explanations....it is still lacking.

Yet, we still believe in it...and might i say...with so much conviction that we in fact use the concept without giving thought to its proof. I honestly do not think Norman Foster used the general theory of relativity when planning the Wembley Stadium.

Here is what i'm trying to say now that you have humored me with the short and messy discussion on modern physics.

A belief is a concept you hold on to and swear by with so much conviction...that you do not question it, but accept it for what it is, proven or not proven.

Strictly speaking....the question of what a belief can or cannot be is 100% dependent on the individual.

You might argue that, "Hey, but everyone accepts that for instance, you can't live without food, and that the world is round. Does this not makes these facts and not beliefs? If that is the case, what on earth is the difference between facts and beliefs?"

Answer: THEY ARE THE SAME.

A fact is in essence a belief so generally accepted that it becomes something rather more indisputable.....and hence we label it a FACT. Nice word...makes it not open to criticism cause hey...its a damn fact....cannot say anything about it.

WRONG.

Facts are open to criticism and are at times disputable. Which brings me to the second part of this post.....

ANY BELIEF OR FACT IS OPEN AND HAS TO REMAIN OPEN TO CRITICISM AND DISPUTE......EVEN THE VERY LAWS THAT WE PERCEIVE TO GOVERN OUR LIVES.

Yes, even science is in fact a belief and is open to criticism. Even mathematics. A language we hold to be the purest, indisputable, irrefutable. Heck, we do our taxes with it.......

Suppose i'm a very fanciful and am a genius. I decide to ditch maths and have a totally different way of doing it.

LAMBAD$&%@&^%!% + (*&^@(^@!&^~&^ = (*&^@&&^@&^

Behold the new math. Gah, this is wrong. I'll just call it "olah". Sounds nicer that "math".

Lets say this thing i just created works for me. I find that under this new system, i can carry out the exact same functions that i do with the aid of mathematical theory. I do not have integration, but have a totally different way of evaluating sums. Or for the matter my concept of a sum is entirely different. But..it works for me! I have no problems with this new theory.

So comes my final point, a belief is a concept, no matter how nonsensical it may sound, nor how common place it is such as the laws of physics......which most importantly...works for you and you're happy with it( i did not phrase my words here well..hopefully you get my drift). This may sound very fanciful. In fact i readily admit that the words i have typed out so far are to a high extent, fanciful and nonsensical.

However, we have to look beyond the common and come to accept that in this world, nothing is concrete. That being said, the only thing keeping the element of uncertainty away in our daily lives are our beliefs and convictions.


My current belief? Nutella is a nutritious breakfast and you won't die from Nutella OD. I believe in this. And though the common fact that sugar+too much=BAD is all around me, i'm just going to ignore it and go with my current belief. It might change once i find out i'm diabetic or something, but till then.............YAY NUTELLA!


Cheers Mates!