Tara Duncan
Thank you very much, Cara Small Atherton, Carl Dunne, Pete Daoust, Mathew Morrill - very thoughtful and inspiring (you didn't have to delete anything though, Mathew).
I contend that anything you have internalized without understanding or verification can fall under the "belief" category. If you understand something you know the mechanics and can explain it to others. You can't explain a belief (even though it may also be a fact) as you haven't taken the time to comprehend what you have assimilated. If you know something you may still be opinionated and reluctant to change that opinion if new evidence is presented; but you don't have the same emotional angst about having your position challenged. You're interested in having the right answer.
Being open to new ideas and constructive debate is critical to personal growth and information sharing. We need to be able to separate those things we believe from those that are real.
As Cara mentioned earlier, we choose to believe things because we are too lazy to investigate. We take one belief and connect another one to it, and then another. At some point we are constructs put together with fictional information. In a large number of cases we have forgotten where we acquired the information and accept most of it as fact.
It's a long road back from this mental conditioning.
Thank you very much for your constructive comments.
Printed copy · Anthology Volume 2, page 277 · cut by a page break
