False Beliefs

Many of the arguments on here, come from people telling others how things are, how to think, how they should be, what is real and what is not.

I too play my part in this, i have also stated things as truth, when in reality, i do not know the absolute truth, and neither does any one else.

So, if we were to start again, and remember, none of us really know, then this would be a good place to start.

We all have experiences, we all have had our moments of thinking, wow, this is it, this is real, only to be let down.

Many of us base our beliefs on our feelings, or things we have heard that sound good, or that we wish for to be true, but unfortunately, none of us know, so none of us have the right, to belittle others, for not believing what they do, because the person in question who is belittiling another, may also hold onto a false belief as truth.

Noun 1. false belief - a misconception resulting from incorrect reasoning
fallacy
pseudoscience - an activity resembling science but based on fallacious assumptions
misconception - an incorrect conception
logical fallacy - a fallacy in logical argumentation
pathetic fallacy - the fallacy of attributing human feelings to inanimate objects; `the friendly sun' is an example of the pathetic fallacy
sophism, sophistry, sophistication - a deliberately invalid argument displaying ingenuity in reasoning in the hope of deceiving someone
paralogism - an unintentionally invalid argument

Common Reasons for False Beliefs

Misleading information from other people

The "others" that mislead us may be authorities or people promoting a product or friends or parents or just about anybody or everybody. They may believe what they say or they may be intentionally deceptive or they may be blatantly lying. Nevertheless, a great deal of what we believe, true or false, we believe because we have heard it from others. We are forced to depend on others for much of our knowledge, so we need to learn as much as we can about how to separate the reliable from the unreliable.
Cultural assumptions

This is a special case of believing others: when virtually everyone in the culture shares the belief. This can be particularly tricky since we are likely to just assume the belief is true. We may never realize there could be a question about it. In many cultures in the past, it was assumed that women were not suited for leadership roles. Everyone simply "knew" it. It was not something that needed to be justified or explained.
Wishful thinking

It is common to find people who have an unrealistic belief in something because that is what they wish were true. They may overestimate their chances of becoming a professional athlete or writing a best selling novel. They may think their child who is slow in school is really very bright but just never given a chance by the teachers. They may believe that some unrealistic claim for a diet or exercise program or arthritis cure is genuine because they want it to work.
Jumping to conclusions

We may draw a conclusion based on too little evidence or evidence that is invalid. If Joe tripped coming up the steps the first time you saw him, you might assume he is clumsy (but this may be the first time he has tripped in five years). If we read about a couple of airliner crashes, we may assume airliners are unsafe. In this case the evidence is misleading because the newspapers report mainly the crashes - rarely the much more common safe landings.
Quantities too big or small to be intuitive

When a senator talks about a program that wastes five billion dollars and another program that wastes five hundred thousand dollars, both these numbers are outside the bounds of our normal intuition. The first waste is ten thousand times more costly than the second. Small probabilities are a similar problem. How great is the risk of being killed by a terrorist while on a European vacation as opposed to being killed on a ten mile bicycle excursion? We can easily form very unrealistic priorities based on quantities that we can't evaluate intuitively.

Polarization: Emotional attachment to one side of an issue

A common, but very serious situation occurs when we become emotionally attached to one side of an issue. Often the problem starts because someone we respect persuades us that a particular "cause" is vitally important but threatened by sinister and corrupt opponents. We start to think of our side as good and the other side as evil. We trust the evidence for our side without questioning whether it might be faulty, and we hastily reject arguments against our position as deception by our evil opponents. It is difficult for us to evaluate new evidence fairly since we are so afraid of siding with the enemy and we hate to disagree with our allies. We might even become so emotionally involved that we feel violence or other unethical practices are justified. Many bitter political, religious, ethnic, and even family conflicts involve polarization.

http://www.truthpizza.org/overview.htm

I suppose the reason why iam posting this, is because, im tired of arguing with people, other humans, who otherwise, i would probabaly get along with, if it were not for our tendancy to always be right in our supposed beliefs, and at the end of the day, our beliefs are not truth, so no matter how much we try to defend them, we dont really have a leg to stand on, we are all on shaky ground!

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by tertiusgaudens on June 14, 2012 at 7:47pm

Wonderfully put...thank you!

Permalink Reply by 3smn7ct05z5dx on June 14, 2012 at 10:05pm

Ok listen up here about "my truth your truth " bullshit.

Is the moon made of cheese? No of course not. If in your world you believe it is made of cheese, and another does not, whose truth wins, as the moon cannot be both cheese and rock.

truths are NOT NOT NOT NOT NOT NOT subjective. You need oxygen for your body to live. this is not a thing that is different for anyone else. You cannot just believe yourself out of needing this element.

When something is a truth is IS a truth because NO ONE CAN DENY IT. this is what makes it true. You can beLIEve whatever you like but that doesnt make it true.

Permalink Reply by 3smn7ct05z5dx on June 14, 2012 at 10:18pm

I would certainly never be your friend. You are attemping what Kelly posted about trying to make your argument sound too eloquent to understand. However you do not understand who you are dealing with.

What you are misrepresnting is the definition of facts, and the supposed definition that beliefs can be fact. You are trying to say that because facts get update that anyones truth is valid. This again is not true and is false logic and delusional thinking. Again there are people who believe that bugs are crawling on their skin and they will hurt themselves in their delusion. In their world the bugs are a truth but they are NOT a fact. Real truths are not subjective. If there is debate over the belief then it is not a truth unless it is proven. Hence your beliefs are not truths until a non believer is forced to acknowledge them.

Permalink Reply by 3smn7ct05z5dx on June 14, 2012 at 10:37pm

Notice in all our comments back and forth you continually degrade me personally saying I am unable to comprehend or unable to think correctly, and I have said no such things to you. This is what is called ad hominem attacks, because you cannot prove your point adequately and feel threatened you attack me like if I am shot down then my words are also not to be trusted. This is the act of an amatur debater. I suggest if you are so confident in your beliefs that you go down to the local philsophers debate club and try to argue this "your truth my truth" nonsense with them. You will learn from an even less caring group than myself that your beliefs on this are flawed and are serving you in no way as you will delude yourself following thought processes which are inherantly discordant to begin with.

Your belief that each individual belief is valid is the basis for religious groups to suck people in with. Children believe in santa claus, the easter bunny, the tooth fairy and other obviously not real things WAY more than any adult has faith in their spiritual beliefs. So how come these beings haven't manifested yet since for millions of children these characters are truths.

By breaking down and examingin the validity of beliefs we work towards the REAL truth of the way this amazing universe works. Accepting any old belief as a truth withou 100% proof is stone age barbarian thinking.

Permalink Reply by Adonai El Ra on June 16, 2012 at 12:24am

the only case where there are two truths about the same thing is in one case only true. An issue is presented, two people with two different beliefs witness that issue, both respond differently, both responses are true responses to the issue, the issue being the same, the responses being different, all three true. The fact that they will respond according to their belief is true, whether or not their belief is true is subjective. The best way to respond depends on whats best for the person witnessing the issue, one person likes apples, another likes oranges. Liking is like a belief it is true for the person. One person believes it is best to run from a fight, another believers it is best to face it head on. Who's belief is true. One person see's one health as more important, the other see's ones pride as more important. To each person the belief is true. The person who believes it is best to run decides instead to fight for example, they get beat to hell and are in physical pain for a long time, their belief that it is best to run has been proven true and the belief to fight false. The person who believes it is best to fight decides to run instead, his pride is beat to hell and is depressed and sour for a long time, his belief that it is best to fight is proven true and the belief to run false.

Both beliefs are true but only to the person who holds it, for they are false with another.

Permalink Reply by Semile on June 14, 2012 at 10:13pm

What??? The moon isn't made of cheese??? Really?

Sorry, I couldn't resist. I run and hit the reset button. lol.

Permalink Reply by Semile on June 14, 2012 at 11:01pm

Wait, now I read that Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy aren't real. You know it has been said that they only come to the homes of believers.

So, I believe in them, and also

A little nonsense now and then is relished by the wisest men. - Roald Dahl's Willy Wonka

Permalink Reply by Ara on June 14, 2012 at 11:21pm

in the contrary Kelly .... if in my experience i have broke my back ... and arm in the accident and it hearts like hell it's the truth ... just because you have not experience it makes it irrelevant to you ... but it remain truth - it cause pain. So my experiences are my truth ...

Permalink Reply by 3smn7ct05z5dx on June 15, 2012 at 4:36pm

The difference is everyone else can see you broke your arm and back. Beliefs are quite different, more like fake back injuries for workmans comp claims. No one can REALLY know if your back is sore other than you, so no one will believe.

It is alright that you believe whatever you want, but just because you believe something doesnt make it a truth.

Permalink Reply by Semile on June 14, 2012 at 8:26pm

Well thought out post KellyAnn. You said, "So, if we were to start again, and remember, none of us really know, then this would be a good place to start." So I thought I'd add this reset button for us all to use as needed. Peace.