The Soap Box

Belief and Truth - the eternal conundrum

There's no doubt about it - a lot of people believe a lot of weird things. Not weird to themselves, perhaps, but certainly to others.

Some people believe they have been abducted by aliens, given a thorough physical once-over, and then returned to normal life. I think that's probably make-believe but there would be little sense in trying to convince them otherwise.

Some people believe an angel called Moroni appeared to a man called Joseph Smith and let him transcribe from golden plates what subsequently came to be called the Book of Mormon. I think that's also total make-believe, but I've never yet convinced a Latter Day Saint on my doorstep.

Some people believe that when we die we all come back again in a different form living multiple existences until maybe we achieve some kind of perfection and blend into the All and stay there for good. Others believe that when you die it's a straight up or down  heaven or hell option; while yet others are convinced that after life there is ... nothing; that's it - you're done.

We could go on and on with this list until we had filled a telephone directory and still not be finished because every one of us has a cluster of beliefs we cherish as true but no two of us have precisely the same set of beliefs. These beliefs may be religious, superstitious, quasi-scientific, or just plain delusional. They may be so normal to so many of us that we scarcely even call them beliefs. They are as things are. They are not even questioned. At one time people knew the earth was flat. But now we know they were wrong. At one time nobody believed you could split an atom. But we know better nowadays. You see, even the things we call facts may turn out to be ill-founded beliefs when our ignorance is dispelled.

So what? Does it matter? In a sense, NO. For we are all on a journey of discovery as we grow up and mature. It's quite normal to hold a certain belief at one time and then discard it later when we gain greater knowledge or insight.

When I was a little boy I believed the wind was generated by the waving of the trees. It had not crossed my mind to wonder how it was the trees waved! I once cleaned up a bone from a pork chop, wrapped it with knitting wool from my mother's sewing box and told my friend it was a juju bone and I could perform spells with it. He believed me and went home in awe to tell his mother.  I got into no small trouble when his mother came to see my mother to tell me how much I had frightened her boy. "Mum, I was only kidding," I explained. Of course. But my friend believed.

Here is the point of this rather long introduction. There are certain beliefs that have been coded up into huge religious systems. These beliefs define (for the believers) how they understand the mystery or wonder of their own existence, their eternal destiny and provide an interpretive framework for how they understand the entire world from its creation onwards. Their beliefs even codify what we should know and understand about that being they call God. You may be such a religious believer; and whatever your particular belief system, whether Hindu, Buddhist, Muslim, Christian, Mormon or whatever, I have no doubt that you would not wish to pitch the importance of those beliefs  alongside some of the silly beliefs I listed above. Why, there would be no comparison!

But in view of the fact that there are such huge differences between these major religious belief systems, and each set of believers believe they are right, I have one question to ask: How do you know that what you believe is true?

Let's tease this out some more. Within the broad stream of Christianity there are thousands of different beliefs. This is why we have so many different churches, denominations and sects. So whether you are Catholic, Methodist, Pentecostal, Baptist (General or Particular) or a snake handling enthusiast from the southern states, the question remains, How do you know that what you believe is true? Can we ever be sure that belief and truth are the same?

This question that touches on belief, truth and knowledge has been the stuff of philosophy for well over 2000 years. It does not have to be too hard. Let's play with this for a few moments.

For normal purposes we know something to be true if we can check it out in some way. If I hear that new cars are being sold at half price down the street I may have reason to doubt that. Why would anyone sell new cars at half price? But then I can go down the street and see for myself. Then I will know whether it's true. But short of checking for myself I could have believed what someone else told me. In this case my certainty about the cars is not quite the same. I take the information in good faith from someone I trust. I only believe the cars are going at half price; I do not know it for sure. My belief would also be affected by the credibility of the person who told me. If I know my wife to be trustworthy and she tells me then my belief might be very strong. But if it's night time, with poor visibility and pouring rain, and she only caught a glimpse of the sign as she drove past then I will know she might have misread the details. And some local psycho calls   

This scenario of knowing or believing what is true would matter more if my life depended on it. Suppose a man breaks into my house, takes my gun and points it at me threateningly. (By the way, I don't actually have a gun. This is a suppose case.) So there he is, with my gun wanting to know where I keep all my diamonds. (The diamonds are suppose also!) Here is the question: is the gun loaded? In this case there is a world of difference to how I feel if I KNOW it's not loaded compared with the uncertainty that comes from only BELIEVING it's not loaded. You see, if I had cleaned the gun and out it away unloaded just before going to bed I will know it's not loaded. But if my son has used it that day at the range.

To be continued ...