The purpose of having beliefs?

[n00bPimp]

I feel like a huge weight has been lifted off my shoulders.

I have come to the conclusion that beliefs are useless.

The only thing they bring into your life is the negative feelings from seeing them destroyed.

This includes beliefs about the world, society, people, myself, future, past, and everything else that comprises reality.

Personal growth only comes from overcoming your fears.

Constantly facing my fears, this is the life I've started to lead.

I'm no longer separated from the world.

It is no longer MY life, its A life. Because whatever created it will take it back, therefore it doesn't belong to me.

This means there's no me, this being is just a space where life resides in.

Do you still see the benefit of having beliefs?

 

[Drdeee]

I believe it's dangerous to swim in a storm.

I believe in giving the right of way to the biggest idiot on the road.


If you don't have beliefs you could drown or be a part of statistic.

 

[r0cky]

I once heard some say "pretend for a moment that all your beliefs have been completely destroyed". I couldn't understand what the purpose of this was.

 

[n00bPimp]

I believe it's dangerous to swim in a storm.

I believe in giving the right of way to the biggest idiot on the road.


If you don't have beliefs you could drown or be a part of statistic.

You're describing knowledge. Knowledge comes from fact, belief comes from opinion, even if its based on facts.

Examples of beliefs:
I believe I'm a great swimmer.
I believe I'm a great driver.

...Until you're proven wrong.

I advocate DOING, with no type of belief behind it.

 

[omkara]

Sounds a lot like existentialism: basically, constructing your own meaning out of life based on what you immediately experience, without any abstract beliefs.

On another note, to say that nothing happens after you die and you cease to exist, that there is nothing existent beyond what we can materially see and experience, is also a belief. We don't really know that there is not a transcendent dimension that is beyond our powers of perception and logic.

 

[n00bPimp]

Sounds a lot like existentialism: basically, constructing your own meaning out of life based on what you immediately experience, without any abstract beliefs.

On another note, to say that nothing happens after you die and you cease to exist, that there is nothing existent beyond what we can materially see and experience, is also a belief. We don't really know that there is not a transcendent dimension that is beyond our powers of perception and logic.

You're right. Now that I look at it, it is a belief.

 

[Rogue]

Everyone has beliefs. It's impossible to not hold beliefs—it's literally hard-wired into our brains. Beliefs keep you alive and happy, pure skepticism and disbelief is impossible, and you would miss out on the grandeur of life and the cosmos of all the things which are indeed true. There are good beliefs and bad beliefs; rock solid beliefs and flimsy beliefs; healthy beliefs and malignant beliefs. The answer isn't to disbelieve everything but to develop skills to discern between good beliefs/good possibilities, and baloney. In the words of the Scottish philosopher David Hume, "A wise man proportions his belief to the evidence."