Every belief that a human has is tested with the litmus test of truth. Truth is comparing reality and idealism. When an individual speaks of a certain belief that they have, they have to always make sure that they are not living in the world of idealism but instead living in a world of reality.
Where every individual think that they have a belief that they created one may find out that instead of creating their own beliefs their beliefs are instead hand pecked to them .many individuals go to different resources to create their own beliefs. Beliefs are things that individuals have different societies created either by the government of their country ,by the media of their country, or by the various institutions of education in their country .
Say, for instance, that an individual believes that the world is overpopulated. Where does the individual gather this information? Is the individual that believes this a statistician? If the individual believes that overpopulation is a problem, and he/she is not a statistician, nor a sociologist, nor any sort of accredited scientist, how did they come to believe this idea? The idea had to be given to them. The quality of the source as well as the sources intended outcome of a specific demographic believing an idea, are rarely questions brought up in today's Western individual.
So the individual believes the world is overpopulated. They had heard it from certain media outlets, and read it in certain textbooks printed by publishers that were owned by certain corporations headed by specific individuals who don't like too many people. The individual at the bottom may have been told a completely reverse arguement against overpopulation from the media corporation owned by the wealthier person higher up the economic food chain than the latter may actually personally stand by. What matters is that the individual citizen recieves the idea and believes it. That the citizens every action in his or her microcosmic level displays the psychological influence of the idea.
The idea is the basis of a belief. Is the idea a fact, or an opinion? If the idea is a fact, it is a thread in the fabric of shared reality. If the idea is an opinion, it can also be a fact. But an opinion can, and most usually is a product or piece of dilusion.
How does one find out?
This is what I have come to: A belief that someone holds, firstly, is usually not a negative. That is, one doesn't hold a belief that something will happen that is negative. At least, it will not be a belief that they actually subscribe to. If they did, their every action would illumine that fact. Therefore, if someone's belief was a negative, say, The Earth will blow up on December 21st, 2012, then most likely their every action would elude to their impending doom and they would be obviously fraught with nueroses.
Outside the spectrum of extreme cases of delusionalism, or negative beleifs, some people believe that when they vote, their vote is counted and that if enough people vote for a specific candidate, regardless of anything else, that that candidate will become the president. This belief is not, in itself, a negative belief. It is a positive belief. But is it the reality of the "election" process as it happens in the United States, or is it the ideal? As you will come to realize from here on out, ignorance is a strong impetus for idealism.
But why would someone think that this ideal, which is their belief, is a real idea? It is taught in our textbooks. It is parroted by our media. Our parents believe it. So, what riles this idealism? What shakes it in the mind of the individual? Is it a random news article by some freshmen reporter, buried on page 9 that our friend stumbles upon in a moment of boredom at their job? Is it a free press publication that flyered the night before? Is it someone's bumper sticker?
In regards to our specific example of the ideal of the American voting process, it has been well established that not only are our elections rigged, but the machines that we use to vote with have been proven to not only be tampered with, but tampered with remotely from areas far and away from the polling places. We forget about the lead up to the actual election, where the vast horizon of corporate interests and powers throw money at the politician that they want to win because he promised them a sweetheart deal if they did. And besides, for the voting process to work perfectly, you actually need an educated voting populace.
If our voting process actually worked in the idealistic way, it would almost be by accident. An accident that many would make sure never occurs.
Knowledge and wisdom are the cures for idealism. Ignorance is the enemy of reality.
Let's try another one:
You believe that when you die, you go to Heaven.
Empirically speaking, there is no hard science to prove, or disprove this belief. Experientially (aka realistically), there isn't any signs to prove or disprove this belief.
Let me try another way; say you were born on a desert island. There was food to eat, water to drink, and a hole that was just big enough to... well, you get my point. So, you live on this island, and your parents were mute and blind. No one else on this island. Stay with me. Would you have any beliefs? You would only have cause and effect. Some things were supercausal (i.e. the sun rising/setting, storms that came, etc.), but other things, like gravity (you wouldn't have a label for it) would be observed. Outside of these things, what would your belief be about an afterlife?
One day, a missionary shows up on your island. He can talk your brand of gibberish and seeds an idea in your head, that, in a nutshell, the Bible is the word of God.
So you start walking around, and you definately leave that hole in the ground you've been frequenting all these years alone. And now you stop working one day out of seven.
Your actions are now based on an idea. The idea cannot be proven to be true. That doesn't necessarily mean it is false. But, if it is false, all your actions are false. Why? They are based on a falsity. Or, if they cannot be proven to be true or false, like the above example, you are acting on faith.
One more:
You believe that the world is experiencing man-made climate change that will eventually melt the glaciers and it is cause by an excess of CO2 in the atmosphere that is trapping greenhouse gases.
Where is your data? It was colder than usual one winter? It was warmer than usual one summer? A little more rain than usual? Do you see where I am headed?
Even scientists disagree; it's a pretty big planet! But let's stay focused.
So, you believe this idea, because you had a teacher in high school who read it in the paper in the seventies, and they, in turn taught you, and you have had this idea reaffirmed by Al Gore's latest money maker. You are also: a) not a climatologist, b) not a historian, and c) not in possession of any samples of atmospheric particles that you can decipher.
So you have a belief that you cannot prove yourself. It is an idea that has been transmitted to you by someone else.
Now let's say you are going to buy a car. You can buy a cheaper, used car that runs on gasoline, but instead you buy a car "green" car. Instead of driving your car, you bike in the hot sun and get very sweaty and uncomfortable.
At your house, you shower every other day or two to save water. You don't flush pee and your bathroom has a little odor to it, and your toilet bowl starts to stain. You don't use plastic bags, or paper, and what plastic bags and paper bags you do have, have filled to the point of clutter your cabinets. You keep a big bin of stinky "compost" in your kitchen that stinks up the room. You don't buy new, nice furniture or technology because you "don't want to contribute" to the waste in the world, so you instead "put up" with musty, old, stained curb finds.
Now, I'm not defending consumption as it occurs in the United States, but there is a reason we have less disease, and a higher standard of living than "third world" countries.
But what you have done, is assimilated an idea into the actions and behavior of your life.
When you take a look at your life and stop acting and behaving according the beliefs that you hold that you cannot prove (or disprove), you will be on the road to freedom of your mind. Questions to be asked:
1) Do I believe something because of consensus? That is, if you believe something that makes many critical of you, will you still hold onto it?
2) Do my beliefs change my consumer spending patterns?
3) If I was born on a deserted island, and no one else was on the island, would I still hold the same belief?
There is a flip side though. It is a scary world to navigate through, I know, but we must all be vigilant. Our minds and beliefs are our own property, a muscle we cannot let atrophy in the comfortably of convenience. That is, are scientists the sancrosanct ideogogues we beleive them to be? Could they be paid to produce bogus "scientific proof"? Will we believe them? Will we not believe them? The man on the desert island doesn't know about physics or chemistry. If he had a layman's knowledge of them both, would he know what scientific paper to accept, and which to reject?
Stay tuned for part two: The Nature of Beliefs.
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