FAITH, BELIEF, KNOWING

META-THINKING

Can we truly know anything, beyond all doubt? Is everything we think we know really belief?

Often I say, “I care not for belief, or faith. We can have faith in anything we chose. We can believe anything we chose. I prefer credible facts that form a foundation for knowing”.

But, when I think I “know”, do I really, finally know? Almost never, and when I think such is the case, I am very uneasy about my mind closing and thereby shutting off the opportunity to learn. That is the one mental condition I consistently oppose.

When we cease to allow serious consideration of new information in an effort to protect what we think we already know, our minds begin to ossify, to become increasingly hard, ridged, inflexible. At that point, our minds have begun dying. They are no longer receiving the nourishment of new information, new thinking.

When we allow the deadly mistake of personally identifying with what we think we know, we cease to learn and our minds are starving to death. Our supposed knowledge, i.e. belief, has become part of who we think we are. We try to protect ourselves by attempting to preserve our belief system.

I have concluded that most likely all “knowledge” is a form of belief. We come to believe something is true when we believe credible evidence has been presented that so indicates.

The most dangerous mental condition is the belief that we know anything with finality.