hold your beliefs lightly...

[thalassa]

We hold our beliefs loosely
Yet while we hold a belief, we explore it deeplysauce

So...this is something I totally agree with, but it was so well put, I had to share.


Thoughts?

[Thorbjorn]

Re: hold your beliefs lightly...

No argument from me! If everyone thought that way the world might be a happier place.

[iris]

Re: hold your beliefs lightly...

I couldn't agree more if I tried thanks for sharing it.

[habbalah]

Re: hold your beliefs lightly...

Absolutely. I'm just one of seven billion mortal people on this earth. Who am I to say what's right or wrong?

[LunarHarvest]

Re: hold your beliefs lightly...

I would say that I agree in terms of principle, but I can't say I fully agree with how it is stated or the argument being made. Still trying to find a way to express it in words, but I feel like its missing something or not presenting something in the right way. I don't properly know what yet, but something is making me reluctant to simply say 'I agree'.

[Sean R. R.]

Re: hold your beliefs lightly...

Wouldn't holding beliefes lightly mean we are just like "meh, might be wrong". How can you truly believe in something without believing it to be right?

[Rae'ya]

Re: hold your beliefs lightly...

Wouldn't holding beliefes lightly mean we are just like "meh, might be wrong". How can you truly believe in something without believing it to be right?

I wonder if this is one of those things that is dependant on a person's wiring? Some people are naturally inclined to hold beliefs lightly while others are 100% certain they are correct. Some define 'true belief' as religious certainty while others recognise that we can't be truly certain about religion.

Holding your beliefs lightly makes absolute sense to me and is exactly how I approach my beliefs... yet it's hard to explain how you can have 'true' belief if you hold it lightly. To me.... it's the difference between fact and hypothesis. My beliefs aren't fact. I can't prove them, nor can anyone disprove them. Therefore it's impossible for me to be 100% sure that I'm absolutely right. Blind faith is not necessary for me to believe. I can believe with all my heart and soul, yet recognise that my beliefs are just one set in a billion sets of beliefs and that they will evolve as I gain more verifiable information.

To me, blind faith and religious certainty is what doesn't make sense. I find it illogical and confining. If you are blindly certain, how can you grow? If you are 100% Right and True, then everyone else must be wrong. To be absolutely certain of your answer, by it's very nature means that you think everyone else's answer is incorrect. You can't grow and learn if you are already 100% certain. And you narrow your ability to accept other perspectives once you have set your mind on your Right and True answer.

I believe what I believe because it makes sense to me and is supported by my experiences. It also provides me with satisfying solution to the conundrum of why and how we don't all believe the same thing. I live my life as though my belief is 'true' because it enriches my life, facilitates meaningful experiences and enables me to grow, learn and evolve. I hold that belief lightly because I understand my belief is not fact and that it is currently impossible for any human being to know the facts about these topics. I didn't consciously choose to hold my beliefs lightly... that's just how I roll. But I still feel that I truly believe. So to me, having that 'meh, might be wrong' in the back of my mind doesn't preclude true belief... it is what leaves room for growth and evolution.

[Ophidia]

Re: hold your beliefs lightly...

Wouldn't holding beliefes lightly mean we are just like "meh, might be wrong". How can you truly believe in something without believing it to be right?

For me, it's that belief doesn't necessarily equal knowing.

I believe in ghosts and spirits and Gods and 'supernatural' phenomena. For me, they are real, and they do influence my behavior. One part of me, the 'logical' part, understands that I might not be seeing and talking to Otherworldly entities or dead people, but instead I might have a mental disorder. However, when I talk to my shrink about these manifestations, delusions, hallucinations - she tells me I might be crazy but I'm not endangering anyone else or myself so I shouldn't worry about it. My various psychiatrists & therapists have never suggested anti-psychotic medications or treatments, they've never encouraged me to suppress my experiences, and they've all been curious about my experiences enough to explore them with me. I've been to neurologists & had them tell me there is nothing physically wrong w/my brain. Almost all of them have told me they don't know exactly why people see ghosts or have spiritual encounters.

These are all highly educated medical professionals. People of science. People who don't see people like me as 'psychic' but instead see people like me as 'psychotic'. And I'm sure more than a few of them had patients whose delusions were dangerous. (Sometimes Coyote tells me to get into trouble & I'm all like, "Screw you, Coyote, you're not the one who'll be sitting in jail". But I can talk to and reason with my delusions - they don't frighten me for the most part and I'm not a puppet).

So I know in the 'real world' that I may genuinely be crazy, that all religious or spiritual people, or people who interact with Otherworldly beings, may be crazy. But, when people of science tell me "the research is still out" that tells me there are limits to our current scientific knowledge. Eventually, science may reveal something in the brain or hormones or glands or genetic make-up to explain why I & others see and hear these things. Until then, I will continue believing that I am dealing with something outside myself. And I'm ok with that.

[iris]

Re: hold your beliefs lightly...

Wouldn't holding beliefes lightly mean we are just like "meh, might be wrong". How can you truly believe in something without believing it to be right?

It depends on how you view it, I think. My beliefs are never static, I am always ready to adapt to new knowledge, that doesn't mean I discard my old beliefs, just that I know that I don't really know anything When I encounter something that seems more right than what I previously thought, I accep that I may have been slightly wrong... happens a lot to me. But to me it's not "meh". it's trial and error. I would never hold my beliefs so firmly that I could not accept new knowledge. It also, to me, means that while I believe my path is right for me I would never push it on someone else - I simply don't know enough, how could I...

[thalassa]

Re: hold your beliefs lightly...

Wouldn't holding beliefs lightly mean we are just like "meh, might be wrong". How can you truly believe in something without believing it to be right?

Well, we might just be wrong. And that is okay. What we know about the world, on an individual basis and a collective one, changes on a daily basis. Holding your beliefs lightly isn't about not believing them to be right, but
about understanding that "right" isn't an absolute thing. In the history of civilization of thousands of societies, what is "right" has been one of the most flexible concepts in existence. What we believe is based on our experiences, and experience is fluid.

[Medusa]

Re: hold your beliefs lightly...

I actually hold some beliefs very tightly. Because it's exactly who I am. And I do not fight against who I am. Such as I have no deity belief button in me. It's just never going to happen. I can fake it very well. Almost convince myself. But deep down inside I'm dead to that idea. On the other hand...a lot of my Satanic beliefs I hold tightly THIS present time. But I know for a fact I change my view of my beliefs with the experiences of time. And if you hold tightly to your beliefs..like death grip...you are gonna have a bad time in this life. Holding tightly does not equal they are right beliefs and no one is gonna tell you different. Holding loosely doesn't mean you are meh about things and are a hippy believer who just 'goes with the flow, man'. Moderation.

[Näre]

Re: hold your beliefs lightly...

I stick to my beliefs, until they fail me. I tend to brainwash myself rather than actually scrutinising and contemplating on my beliefs, a habit which perhaps gives a sense of safety for a while but then it usually falls apart, sooner or later.

Now that I've broken away from my previous belief system - or at least distanced myself from it for a while - I intend to start this Pagan path with a bit more lighter take on my beliefs or at least truly looking at them and exploring them instead of just mindlessly swallowing whatever is being fed to me. It has been easier to just take someone else's words and think "oh yes, this must be true because it restricts me from doing things", no matter from which belief system those words come from. I have to say I have some fear things going on because some big fella from a religion I've never even followed has said that his faith is the only one. (Various big fellas, to be honest.)

But I wholeheartedly agree with the quote on this first post. Especially the notion of the universe being so old compared to our mortal human existence.

[SleepingCompass]

Re: hold your beliefs lightly...

This all just makes me think of one of my favorite quotes:

Dogma

[sofialunardream]

Re: hold your beliefs lightly...

i agree with seanrave, i like being passionate about what i believe in, sure i dont harass people who dont share my beliefs, but i feel to strongly to take it lightly. Awesome read though

[thalassa]

Re: hold your beliefs lightly...

This all just makes me think of one of my favorite quotes:

Dogma

I like this quote (haven't seen that movie in ages).

To me, saying you absolutely believe in something to be true means you actually are insecure in your faith and are using it like a security blanket.

Religion should be something we treat like a hypothesis, not like a theory. It is not a fact, its a guess. And yeah, its a guess based on the experiences of ourselves and others, but its a guess that can be replicated in other ways--we can create religious experience without religion, and we can even create the experience of a divine encounter without anything divine. The development and experience of religion have a very real evolutionary, neurogical, biochemical, and sociological basis (both in cause and effect). Religion and spirituality are based in the abstract and subjective...and should never be held so tightly that one can't accept the possibility that they are wrong and/or someone else is right.

i agree with seanrave, i like being passionate about what i believe in, sure i dont harass people who dont share my beliefs, but i feel to strongly to take it lightly. Awesome read though

This (not just your statement but others along the same line) makes me think some people have a hang-up with the word "lightly". Holding your beliefs lightly doesn't mean 1) that you aren't passionate about them, or 2) that your feelings are weak. Holding your beliefs lightly is a statement against dogmatism. Its sort of like the difference between authoritative and authoritarian parenting (hint, the first one is good).