Contrary to popular thought we cannot choose what we believe. Faith is not something you put on in the morning... it’s something you wake up into – not unlike a bad dream you cannot escape!
It is a commonly held notion that our thoughts inform our beliefs… that simply by thinking we determine what we believe.
It seems, to me however, to be quite the contrary… our beliefs give context and meaning to our thoughts and as such are the predecessors. Hence, our beliefs determine what we think, and not the other way around.
This idea explains the otherwise inexplicable reality of the vast array of opposing and contrary (often illogical) concepts that various proponents consider to be entirely rational from their perspective – and usually they are correct; all of them!
Before a ‘thought’ can be meaningful or useful there must be a construct giving said thought context and meaning.
In other words, thoughts operate in a ‘mind-space’ which enables the thinker to give them meaning. Without the appropriate mind-space thoughts are meaningless and irrelevant.
To grasp this idea, consider what a baby ‘sees’ before it has constructed the concept of three-dimensional physical space. One might imagine that all movement before the baby’s eyes is perceived as simply a dazzling two-dimensional array of changing colours and light intensity – not easy to make much sense of that.
The corollary of the above is that thoughts acquire meaning according to the mind-space in which they are experienced.
For example, to most people the ideas raised in quantum physics seem irrational, illogical and bizarre. The reason for this is simply that the context required to understand the ideas is not something one gains in everyday experience. The context of a quantum Universe has been evolving over the last century in the minds of a tiny minority. To these individuals the concept of an electron being simultaneously a wave and a particle may make sense. To all other humans this idea is simply irrational and bizarre.
Another example is that of our modern idea of the human psyche. As a result of the work of Freud and other forefathers of Psychology it is broadly accepted that there are two major aspects to the human mind; the ‘conscious’ part and the ‘unconscious’ (or ‘subconscious’) part. Given the context of an unconscious part of our minds the various psychological theories about the psyche make sense. But without this context the ideas of modern Psychology are ridiculous and irrational (as my father was always so fond of mentioning).
To summarise, for our thoughts to be rational and meaningful to us they must occur in an appropriate context or mind-space… and conversely the mind-space within which thoughts are experienced determines their meaning to us.
Another way of saying this is that our thoughts operate within the context of our beliefs. If we believe the concept of an unconscious aspect of our minds, then the ideas (thoughts) in modern psychology make sense and are rational. If we believe the concept of a quantum Universe, then the ideas (thoughts) in quantum mechanics make sense and are rational. Without the appropriate belief-system (mind-space), such ideas / thoughts are irrational and will probably be rejected.
In other words, rationality – whether a particular thought or idea appears logical and reasonable to an individual – is determined by the belief-system of that individual at that point in time… and NOT by the quality (or otherwise) of the thought itself.
The above conclusion has far-reaching implications. We customarily consider that ‘rational thought’ is objective and removed from beliefs. Logic and reason applied to a situation will result in an objective rational result, so the thinking goes… but this is not actually the case. As will be illustrated in the next page; “science is a religion…” logic is actually a belief-system… it is neither objective nor verifiable.
Rational thought is subject to a ‘mind-space’ (or belief-system) within which it must operate. If you believe that logic and empiricism yields true information then the concept of human evolution being a random process governed by chance will make sense – will be rational to you – while the idea that we have been specifically and individually created in the image of God, will not. On the other hand, if you are a Christian, and you believe what is written in the bible to be true (the word of God), then the idea that we have been specifically and individually created in the image of God will make sense – will be rational to you – and the concept of human evolution being entirely a random process governed by chance, will not.
So, how does this all work?
The only way I can make sense of it is by using the concept of a thought-system operating within a belief-system.
Our mind is good at thinking. The advantage that led to human supremacy on earth is intelligence… the ability to learn, understand and adapt to new situations very quickly. This is achieved by the mind applying what is already known and understood (believed) about the universe to the new situation.
For example, the mind learns that when a rock is dropped on my foot it hurts… in a combat situation, the mind applies this thinking to the new situation, and drops a rock on the assailant – with effective result! In this example, the belief-system is: ‘when rock is released, it drops to the ground and collides with whatever is in its path’. The thought-system is: ‘when I drop a rock on my foot it hurts me, so if I drop a rock on him, it should hurt him’. At no point was the belief-system called into operation… the thought, ‘if I release this rock, will it fall or float?’ did not occur.
Were we incapable of holding on to a belief-system all thoughts would have to work from the primary point of logic, and that would be terribly cumbersome, in other words, not quick! So, intelligence, it seems, evolved to create a belief-system that it structures (probably on being exposed to the same idea repeatedly… e.g., ‘when I drop a rock it falls to the ground’) in order to avoid unnecessary computation.
Imagine that every time you saw something you had to construct the concept of a three-dimensional physical space [as if for the first time] in order to make sense of what you are seeing… this gives an idea of the importance and required solidity of belief-systems to survival.
Belief-systems are solid and give a structured security, but they do not allow for rapid response to the environment. To be fleet-of-foot, the mind also evolved the ability to think quickly… to take the belief-systems as a given (e.g., three physical dimensions) and to compute using a thought-system within the structure given by the beliefs (e.g., to calculate the path of a projectile and to move the hand in order to catch a ball in flight).
So, evolution gives us an understanding of the reason the mind has evolved belief-systems (which define our universe in ways we do not question) and thought-systems (which enable us to do mental gymnastics within the structure yielded by the belief-system).
This combination; thought-systems operating within a belief-system underpins all human cognition.
In order to understand another’s thinking, all that is necessary is to understand the belief-systems that are in place for that individual to make sense of the universe. Simple but enormously difficult!
‘existential crisis’ and the ‘eureka moment’ explained!
Existential crisis occurs with an individual’s belief-system cannot account for the evidence that is being witnessed repeatedly. Our belief-systems are firm; slow to change. They are designed that way to create a sense of solidity and structure in an otherwise bewildering universe.
It is my opinion that belief-systems are created and changed by continual exposure to an idea. In other words, we cannot choose what we believe; we will believe that to which we are continually exposed… of course, we do have control to some extent over the ideas we allow ourselves to experience.
So, when our belief-system cannot account for the evidence we are witnessing repeatedly our universe becomes an unsettled and frightening place… it becomes difficult for us to create meaning (something essential to humans)… we experience an existential crisis; like the atheistic scientist philosopher who can no longer account for his continuous internal longing for connectedness in the world and is seeking another explanation of his universe, or the fundamental Christian who can no longer accept the simplistic literal application of the bible to a complex universe. It happens slowly and gradually, the edges of the belief-system come under attack without it being noticed initially, and then one day… life just doesn’t add up any more (our belief-systems just don’t explain the universe as it is being experienced)… enter existential crisis!
It is never comfortable changing a belief-system (which is why we don’t do it often). This is understandable because our entire thought-system (the way we experience and make on-going sense of our universe) is based on, and operates within, our belief-system… so, when you change your belief-system, effectively you change your universe! It’s massive, and very traumatic.
But if a belief-system is inadequate to explain the universe as it is being experienced, then it must be changed to enable the individual to continue to function effectively within that universe. Insanity in many cases (think of paranoia) is simply the maintaining of a belief-system significantly different from that of those around you. When you speak to someone who is paranoid, they make sense in a bizarre weird sort of way… in other words, their thought-system is working coherently, but it is operating within a belief-system so foreign to your own that the individual’s ‘rational’ argument is completely irrational to the situation (as viewed from your belief-system).
The upside of changing a belief system is the expanding of one’s universe (that, at least, is the experience as it occurs), and often it occurs rapidly; the ‘eureka moment’. Suddenly everything makes sense… everything falls into place, and the universe changes in a moment from a place of difficulty and confusion to a place of expanded knowledge and seemingly infinite possibilities.
The idiom ‘eureka’ comes from the story of Archimedes who, as he stepped into the bath and noticed the water rise, suddenly understood (in a moment) that the volume of water displaced was equal to the volume of his body submerged in the water. This was a paradigm previously hidden from him – it was not part of his belief-system. The moment it became part of his belief-system, it seemed obvious, and he was able to formulate mathematical procedures to determine density (and therefore evaluate whether gold had been blended with less valuable metals).
The point here is that his thinking-system was free to proliferate in an altogether new direction, the moment his belief-system encompassed the new paradigm.
Science is littered with wonderful examples of similar synchronous moments such as the discovery of penicillin by Alexander Fleming, or Teflon by Roy Plunkett, or Scotchgard by Patsy Sherman… all these discoveries were made while looking for something else… but the inventor’s minds were open to anomalies outside the parameters of their belief-systems… and when they saw them, in a moment, they crossed the paradigm – which freed their thought-systems to make the discovery.
The most common occurrence of a ‘eureka moment’, however, must surely be religious conversion. We have all encountered friends who yesterday were an ardent atheist and today are zealot believers of one religion or another; or perhaps were religious people but now are philosophical atheists. These individuals have shifted from one belief-system to another… and the clarity of thought this shift brings for them is so overwhelming they often become overbearing in their desire for you to share their new ‘truth’.
What they don’t realise, is that it has nothing to do with truth per se; it is simply the adopting (or expanding) of a belief-system that better explains the universe from their perspective – which then frees their thought-system to expand into previously hidden dimensions.
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