To Believe or not to Believe?

Yes, this is what I’ve been mulling over and over the past month, i.e. what is it that makes us choose to believe and not believe.

The logical, rationalised answer to this apparently obvious question is: evidence-material, visible, logical, cogent evidence.

Sure, this makes perfect sense in most ways, but what about those beliefs we have which are not evident/material/cogent in nature?

What about our theories, ideas, imagination, intuitions, foresight, hindsight?

How do we know these exist, if we choose not to believe that they exist?

The answer to this is also simple: we know they exist and therefore we believe that they exist.

Love is believing that someone cares enough to make time for you, to dedicate a part of their lives for your well-being, to compromise, to sacrifice, to cope with you, because they hold you in high esteem.

Similarly, hatred is believing that someone is not worth your time, your care, your well-being, your compromises and sacrifices.

We know that our thoughts and feelings exist, because we believe they exist.

The point I’m trying to make here is that without our capabilities and will to believe – nothing in the world would make sense, would it?

So, a chair is a chair, because we believe it to be a chair;

A table is a table because we believe it to be a table;

Etc, etc, etc…

Coming to the crux of this blog post, what baffles me to the point of head-scratching frustration (yes, my hair and head are both in clean condition, thank you very much!) is  why does our belief/non-belief in God and religion drive us to such antagonistic anarchy? To death and destruction? To sheer egotism?

If someone believes in God/Spirit/Higher Self/Soul, let them be…

If someone does not believe in God/Spirit/Higher Self/Soul, let them be too…

What’s with all the forcing and coercion?

Worse, what’s with all the disagreement not only verbally but also attitudinally?  E.g. “I think what you believe in is rubbish and so medieval!” or ” I think you’re a fanatic/lunatic/madman for believing in God/Spirit/Higher Self/Soul!”

“Whatever!” Comes my instant knee-jerk response!

If you don’t like what others believe in, you can jolly well say so, as we all have a right to our own opinions, but that doesn’t give us the right to mock, dismiss, condescend or patronize what others believe in.

Have we chosen to forget our morals and chuck them in the bin for good? How can we call ourselves truly educated if we dismiss the beliefs and practices of others so vehemently?

If we can’t deny that our thoughts, ideas, feelings, imagination exist, why do we deny the existence of ethereal concepts like telepathy, psychic clairvoyance, premonitions, ominous dreams?

Is it just because some of us have exercised these and others haven’t?

But then, isn’t that the same as saying what’s one strength is another’s weakness and vice versa?

Sure, I grant you that there have been many times that psychic predictions have not worked out, but then so have many scientific experiments.  Similarly, many experiments have worked and so have psychic predictions.

Why can’t we be open enough to balance the material and spiritual worlds together? Nobody said that we had room for just one of these worlds, right?