Beliefs v. Faith
Alexander Liss
Beliefs are a foundation of logical
constructions and consequent decisions. People often become emotional, when
their beliefs are challenged, because their past decisions are challenged this
way.
Years ago, mathematicians learnt to clearly
formulate a set of beliefs, on which they based their logical constructions.
This brought substantial flexibility of thinking and created an environment,
where discussions could be made on a firm common base.
Eventually, the same approach was adopted
by sciences.
This is why scientific discussions are
relatively cool and civilized, while, for example, political discussions are
rude and excessively emotional.
This extraction and formal description of
the system of beliefs, on which one bases logical conclusions and decisions, allowed seeing the way beliefs are shifting in
real life.
New
realities bring new set of beliefs. This is how the mind adapts to new
realities.
Shifting of the system of beliefs in the
middle of the creation of a logical construction is dangerous: a combination of
beliefs, which contradict each other, allows one to arrive to any logical
conclusion.
Hence, mathematicians and scientists
benefit from explicit stating of the set of beliefs on which they base a
particular logical construction.
Such
extraction of the set of beliefs and analysis of it on absence of obvious
logical contradictions is a difficult work. Hence, often, this is not achieved
beyond mathematics and sciences. However, even limited attempts to formulate
clearly a system of beliefs in a particular area benefit discussions in this
area and help avoiding logical loops and baseless fantasies.
Contrary
to beliefs, articles of faith carry logical contradiction. They have an
internal logical contradiction and they contradict current perception of
reality. Articles of faith cannot be used in any logical construction.
While
beliefs are corner stones used in logical construction and different logical
constructions could use different systems of beliefs, faith is a tool of
demolition of rigid logical constructions, which get on the way of efficient
decision making in changing reality.
Any
system of beliefs at some moment becomes outdated - decisions made based on it
become contradicting reality. In other words, it becomes insane, if it is not
changed in time.
Mathematicians
and scientists found a convenient way around this problem. They provide logical
constructions with explicitly defined "adaptation elements". These
"adaptation elements" are systems of beliefs, on which these
constructions are based. Actual adaptation - the choice of an appropriate in a
situation system of beliefs, is left to a user of these logical constructions.
Neither
mathematics nor science delivers a single decision. Their user has to make
every single one.
To
do this efficiently, the user has to have many different tools. Faith, as a
demolition tool, is an essential one among them.