What is belief?

[pljames]

The (kjv) says, "Faith is believing without seeing yet things hoped for". Take the word (soul) just because we can't see or feel it, does that mean there isn't one? I've never seen the backside of the Sun and the edge of the universe, but rationally I believe they exist. Thoughts please. pl

[720iD]

What is belief? It's a thought that is believed.

What  is a fruit?  It's a fruit that is fruity.

[720iD]

720iD:  What is a fruit?  "Fruit" is a word you just used to denote a variety of 'edibles', we can define the word 'fruit' further if you like. Do the same with the word 'dog'. If you wrote fruit is fruity, then a dog is doggy?
Thanks for demonstrating the 'conditioning' I referred to. You identify words with 'referents', as a equation; our unconscious, especially our amygdala, takes such equations literally and reacts to the 'thought-image' as it it where what it only represents.
If you don't or can't 'transcend' conditioning, you won't understand my # 2 above, welcome to the majority (lol)

Thank you for sharing your wisdom.

Apply that wisdom to the following statement.

What is belief? It's a thought that is believed.

[720iD]

Arjuna: Tell me Master, what is belief?
Krishna: Belief is something that is believed.
Arjuna: Master, and what is believed?
Krishna: Believed is the belief.
Arjuna: Master, Belief is something believed and believed is the belief.
Krishna: Sanyassin, You have entered enlightenment. Don't look down.
Arjuna: And what of Barack Obama?
Krishan: He is a fruity dog.

[SWM]

the explanation of belief as something believed is circular. there is more to "what is belief?" than "belief is a thought believed".

[authorityismental]

The (kjv) says, "Faith is believing without seeing yet things hoped for". Take the word (soul) just because we can't see or feel it, does that mean there isn't one? I've never seen the backside of the Sun and the edge of the universe, but rationally I believe they exist. Thoughts please. pl

Here it is...

How to describe colour to a blind man

You live in a cold dark cave with many people and you have never seen light in your entire life.  There are people in the cave that have seen “the light” and they speak of it.  You fully trust these people and believe that one day you will experience the light.  In the mean time you try to grasp what they are talking about, but you cannot fully comprehend how your eyes can feel objects at a distance without directly touching the object.  It is so alien to you, “what does sight feel like?” you keep asking yourself.  You feel one day you will experience this light.

Waiting for an experience to occur that you have not yet experienced is Blind Faith.

One day you are fumbling around the cave and accidentally hit the light switch and the light shines.  You see this light for the first time, seeing is believing after all.  You see the Light they talk about, you experience it.  Experience is Belief. 

Belief is experiencing an experience, it is Fact.

The light is off again, you fumble around in the dark looking for the switch, but you now have Faith that when you find the switch and flip it again, that a light will shine. 

Faith is waiting for an experience to occur that you have experienced before. 

So how do we describe colour to a blind man? 

We can’t, all we can do is tell him about the light switch, and the light switch is – DMT.

In faith can be found fact and in fact can be found faith

[pljames]

excellent post excellent. You've made my year. pl

The (kjv) says, "Faith is believing without seeing yet things hoped for". Take the word (soul) just because we can't see or feel it, does that mean there isn't one? I've never seen the backside of the Sun and the edge of the universe, but rationally I believe they exist. Thoughts please. pl

Here it is...

How to describe colour to a blind man

You live in a cold dark cave with many people and you have never seen light in your entire life.  There are people in the cave that have seen “the light” and they speak of it.  You fully trust these people and believe that one day you will experience the light.  In the mean time you try to grasp what they are talking about, but you cannot fully comprehend how your eyes can feel objects at a distance without directly touching the object.  It is so alien to you, “what does sight feel like?” you keep asking yourself.  You feel one day you will experience this light.

Waiting for an experience to occur that you have not yet experienced is Blind Faith.

One day you are fumbling around the cave and accidentally hit the light switch and the light shines.  You see this light for the first time, seeing is believing after all.  You see the Light they talk about, you experience it.  Experience is Belief. 

Belief is experiencing an experience, it is Fact.

The light is off again, you fumble around in the dark looking for the switch, but you now have Faith that when you find the switch and flip it again, that a light will shine. 

Faith is waiting for an experience to occur that you have experienced before. 

So how do we describe colour to a blind man? 

We can’t, all we can do is tell him about the light switch, and the light switch is – DMT.

In faith can be found fact and in fact can be found faith

[authorityismental]

Thank you, you made my year.  Our experiences are absorbed by the great spirit, it all comes down to experience.  Here is a thread on experience.  We are 3 Dimensional Animals so our construct is 3 Dimensions of experience...here is a thread on it.  I hope you enjoy this one, this is a new branch of psychology.   It is simple enough for a child to understand, now it could be wrong, perhaps Consionsusness is Awareness of Awareness, it doesn't matter it is a step in the right direction....

http://psychology-forum.com/general-psychology-forum/proof-of-god/

  Reason for moderation: Use the one topic. rather than hijack other topics for the same subject.

[authorityismental]

Here is the More you speak of...This is Enlightment Coming at ya all...

There is more to than there is to
 
There is more to Oneness than there is to Separateness
   because...
There is more to Love than there is to Fear

There is more to Sharing than there is to Keeping
   because...
There is more to Others than there is to Self

There is more to Forgiveness than there is to Judgement
   because...
There is more to Healing than there is to Punishment
 
There is more to Honesty than there is to Truth
   because...
There is more to Enlightenment than there is to Knowledge

There is more to Learn than there is to Teach 
   because...
There is more to Experience than there is to Explore

There is more to Life than there is to Life
   because...
There is more to The Great Spirit than there is to The Great Spirit
 
There is more to, there is always more...

Serriously....This is Big, even if the levels of experience are off, perhaps consionsussness is Awareness of Awareness, perhaps, perhaps...ect...ect...

DMT Is the key for this, this I do know...Experience(ex) = Experience(ex) = (ex) and (GOD) = (ex)^infinity

Even if it is not perfect, it is a step in the right direction, it is the level of experience of the observer that should be taken into account in uderstanding the Emperical Data gathered from the physical experiment.

It isn't rocket science, I don't know why people are struggling with this?  I am thinking smart people are over thinking this and trying to complicate it when it is infact simple...(ex)=(ex)

[Maygee]

Personally speaking, I think that belief is the will to live. That if we never had belief we would not want to live. That if you are attacked, you run away with some sort of belief that you'll be able to escape and keep on living. As we've developped as the human race, belief has become a much much deeper meaning. The belief in someone like Gods. That people carry belief for their God's because they put their trust in them to provide them with a healthy living life. Sometime's things get too hard for people, too difficult so they lose their belief in themselves. That's usually how someone who was not religious can become religious. They place their belief in someone else, a God. Belivieving that they can survive because they are not alone. It has been researched that humans need to belong. That we're soft wired for empathy, to belong by affection, attachement and so on.

Back to the main point, I think that belief started off as our will to live. Now it stands at that but so much more. That it can still be the will to live but in a different way, a much deeper way.

And about the soul, I think that there's nothing that can prove that we do not have a soul. For those who are not religious, think of it from a scientific point of view. The universe created this earth which created us. We are a part of nature and nature is a part of the universe. The universe holds unimaginable powers. We cannot even dare to say we're close to understanding it. We are connected directly to something so powerful, that the idea of having a soul, something non physical is quite possible. There are things out there we cannot prove. Things, substances, whatever that we can not test for, or sense in any way but can still be out there. Somethings just can't be discovered by humans or proved to exist.

Before Religion was a much more important part of the world. But now today we live in a society where we need proof, evidence and facts to say something is true or real. It is because we got where we are today, thriving and ruling and booming technology wise, and discovering so much more due to proof evidence and facts. Nowadays it's difficult to get people to believe we have a soul because we cannot test for it or prove it's there. But that doesn't mean it doesn't exist. There is always a possibility. Even if someone says it's impossible, they're wrong. Humans have said many things are impossible but have been proven wrong. We do not know everything.

I may have said a bit too much and gone off the point a few times but hope you like my ideas on what belief is and the existence of the soul.

[Enigma]

Aha; is DMT a drug? If so, it puts you 'in touch' with another dimension. But from that perspective, what you say is not obvious to those of us not on the drug nor in the higher perspective, that is possible other ways to shift to or jump to like electrons jump orbit. But you do 'bring us new info' thanks.

Yes, it's a drug, and quite an awesome one at that.  However, it does have the potential to turn you into a rambling armchair philosopher who blames smart people for "over analyzing" their insipid pseudo-spiritual tautologies about like, higher planes of consciousness maaan. 

And about the soul, I think that there's nothing that can prove that we do not have a soul. For those who are not religious, think of it from a scientific point of view. The universe created this earth which created us. We are a part of nature and nature is a part of the universe. The universe holds unimaginable powers. We cannot even dare to say we're close to understanding it. We are connected directly to something so powerful, that the idea of having a soul, something non physical is quite possible. There are things out there we cannot prove. Things, substances, whatever that we can not test for, or sense in any way but can still be out there. Somethings just can't be discovered by humans or proved to exist.

Before Religion was a much more important part of the world. But now today we live in a society where we need proof, evidence and facts to say something is true or real. It is because we got where we are today, thriving and ruling and booming technology wise, and discovering so much more due to proof evidence and facts. Nowadays it's difficult to get people to believe we have a soul because we cannot test for it or prove it's there. But that doesn't mean it doesn't exist. There is always a possibility. Even if someone says it's impossible, they're wrong. Humans have said many things are impossible but have been proven wrong. We do not know everything.

Do you believe in leprechauns, fairies, and the Easter Bunny too?  It seems your burden of proof is "if we cannot prove it does not exist, then it probably exists".  The burden of proof lies on you to provide evidence for your claim (and not "well, it's possible that it exists") and not on us to disprove your claim. 


I always hate these discussions about "god" because the word is basically meaningless.  Everybody uses god with their own personal subjective definition in mind that's usually the result of cognitive biases and wish fulfillment and the discussion devolves into a mindless circlejerk about how awesome your personal definition of god is. 

[Alexandre]

Is there such a thing as a "soul"? It's a question involving belief, and belief is quite important. I'm not talking about religion, I'm talking about pure belief. There are some beliefs that destroy society and some that allows it to flourish. Believing that one has a soul, is a valid belief, because there are no real definitions of the word(I don't accept definitions of the word). The soul is intangible, just as energy before it transfers into matter. You can't touch the soul, and don't get all worked up about it, trying to pull it in to a religious perspective.

The soul does exist, but I haven't a clue of how to define "it".

PS: I'm not a neophyte