Where do your belieifs come from? Social, religious, political, or otherwise.

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   shynslyposted 13 years ago

   Where do your belieifs come from? Social, religious, political, or otherwise.
   
   I'm not trying to be inflammatory, just curious. Perhaps this is as much of a rhetorical question as anything else... but where and how did you aquire your beliefs?

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2. 87

   W. K. Hayesposted 13 years ago

   In a word...experience. The things I believe in are the things I have experienced for myself.

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3. 60

   truebluewriterposted 13 years ago

   all of the things mentioned build up to who we are. There are greater influences for some of them in certain persons than others but i doubt there's anyone who was able to pick lets say religious views and shutout everything else, he/she's probably just in denial.

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4. 0

   Butch Newsposted 13 years ago

   Our initial beliefs are imbedded in us by our parents then, as we grow, society around us influences our beliefs.  We may, or may not abandon what our parents taught us... it depends upon education and intelligence and if the beliefs given to us by our parents are valid in our more grown up point of view.
   
   It took me a long time and examination of the world to conclude that religion was evil and based upon fear and superstition.
   
   I'm definitely, beyond any shadow of any kind of doubt, an atheist now that I've educated myself and studied the basis and scriptures of religious beliefs.
   
   But I understand why so many have been brainwashed into their beliefs and why they find it so difficult to escape them... their entire reality might crumble.

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5. 61

   BobbiRantposted 13 years ago

   We believe our parents without much question until we grow old enough to understand what our own life experiences mean to us.

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6. 58

   Alternative Primeposted 13 years ago

   Probably a combination of all mentioned. Each will have a higher or lesser degree of influence depending on the person.

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7. 60

   shynslyposted 13 years ago

   Thanks for the answers so far! I wish we had the ability to edit our questions, both because my typo of "beliefs" is irritating the crap out of me, lol, and to rephrase my wording a little. I guess I was speaking more in terms of the actual specific beliefs you hold more so than generalized for all of us, if that’s not too personal to ask.
   
   As for my own,  of all the things that annoy me about my brain and the way it works (or doesn’t), one thing I do like about it is that, for all intents and purposes, the only beliefs I have are the ones I’ve actually taken the time to think through and figure out for myself.
   
   Like many of you have pointed out, I got the basis of my way of thinking from my parents, but that was just kind of a general framework. I then spent seven years in the military which also played it's role in the development of my though processes.
   
   Since then, everything in specific I’ve either sincerely thought about at a point in my life where that particular issue somehow became relevant to me, or I haven’t had a need to as of yet, so I remain more or less indifferent about it.

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8. 80

   kallini2010posted 13 years ago

   We believe that we are more often right than wrong.  We were told at the beginning of our lives, which we don't even remember.  By the time we are capable of remembering, we have been named, identified and instructed.
   
   There is a theory, a funny one at that, that we are all like characters in books, we are written.  And it is not only one author who writes, but a multitude of them.
   
   I am very philosophical, whereas my parents are not and my mother never could win an argument with me, because of my "steel" logic.  Her way to end the argument was to call me "a sophist".
   
   Anyway, according to that theory, when we think about anything it is the work of a particular writer.  The book where I read it is called "T" by Victor Pelevin.  T. is a character written by five authors and when he was told about it he was petrified to find out that he has no control over his thoughts or actions.
   
   The fifth author calls himself "metaphysician of absolute" and the quintessence, the one who gives the story and the character the meaning.
   
   From the dialogue between T. and the editor (the main writer), using the analogy, T. talks to the Creator (a god). T. asks:
   
   Quoting:
   
   -    And how can I recognize this quintessensor?
   
   -    You can recognize him, for example, like that – if in the middle of the battle you all of a sudden start thinking about the meaning of it, then that it’s him.
   
   -    If in the middle of the battle one thinks about its meaning, - T. mumbled, - the only meaning there can be is in being killed.”

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9. 59

   AngusNzposted 13 years ago

   Belief comes from us being a community animal, to survive as a  unit similar thinking is a benefit, likewise to ensure that groups were not too large and inefficient differences of opinion evolved. Our belief tends to replicate that of the stronger willed in the group (subconsciously), and as such enables genetic mixing where somebody who differs in opinion is shunned by one group and joins another. Gene Mixing. These traits have evolved as we have created societies but they trace back to our prehistoric emergence and are parts of our psyche.

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10. 66

    Tusitala Tomposted 13 years ago

    Generally, if we know nothing at all about a subject, and someone who we regard as creditable or knowledgeable tells us about it, we tend to believe them.   That's the first thing.
    
    The next is that we then tend to fortify this belief by finding out more about it - from the viewpoint of what we've first been originally told.  We strengthen it.   For example, we might read newspapers and magazine articles which support the view we've originally been given.  We become seekers after this new knowledge.  We tend to be 'selective' in our reading, building up that perhaps very tenuous original belief until we take owner ship of.    Once it becomes a part of us, that's when the troubles start.
    
    The problem begins when we identify with it as being a 'part of us.'   "My belief is right.  Yours is wrong."  "My people belief this.  Your people believe that."    Wars are fought over such ideas which are often 'built on sand.' because we fear that if our belief is undermined we lose something of ourselves. 
    
    And, of course, few of us stop to examine where our beliefs came from in the first place, even less, to examine objectively whether or not they are based in truth.

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11. 80

    Wayne Brownposted 13 years ago

    I think they come from a combination of sources as you mentioned mixed together in some level of priority. They come from life experiences....seeing things that don't work tried over and over again. You can dress up a pig and put lipstick on it but in my mind...it's still a pig.  Common sense lies at the forefront of my beliefs. If it does not pass the litmus test of good old common sense, the I am skeptical from that point on in the process.  We have a $14 trillion dollar national debt because far too many people did not apply good common sense to proposals which were made and funded.  We need to get back to that sense. WB

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12. 61

    ramesh kavdiaposted 13 years ago

    1. by knowledge
    2. by wisdom
    3. by experiencing
    4. by imaginations
    5. by intuitions

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