We convince ourselves that we what we think is the TRUTH. Our thoughts are the facts. After all, we are putting our ideas into words, so doesn't that count for something?

If someone writes about something, doesn't that mean it is the truth?

If we choose to read only non-fiction books because we are only interested in being objective, unemotional and dispassionate, are we really choosing to be any of these? Or are we just fuelling our beliefs?

All beliefs are assumptions; all beliefs are unproven convictions. If they were anything else, they would be proven facts and we would not speak of them as beliefs.

If we accept the belief that we can separate our behaviour from our emotions, that we are truly ignoring our feelings in making decisions, then everything we do in our career will simply re-enforce that  belief.

Beliefs form a closed loop in how we think.  You believe something is true and you discount anything that would go against or disprove what you believe. You direct your attention to, and make more important in your mind, those things that prove your belief.

Because you believe you are more intelligent than other people, those people should not insult your intelligence be doing or saying something that insults your intelligence.  You are not a fool therefore you do not tolerate fools lightly.

But what is intelligence? How do you measure it? No one has been able to define intelligence in a way that it can easily be measured without a whole series of assumptions.

We all use the word intelligent as though we really know what it is. We certainly believe that we are intelligent. Yet intelligence has not be clearly defined or measured.

We use the word soul or spirit as though we really know what we are talking about.  Yet, the soul has not been factually and scientifically identified.

We can speak words that the human being is an emotional, spiritual, rational or physical being but can we prove it? 

We have difficulty proving that these characteristics are separate one from the other. It all depends on your perception and perceptions depend on your beliefs.  Perhaps we should stop talking as though our behaviour makes us a fragmented human.

So our language and the definition of words clearly influence how and what we think about.  If our language only supported counting to three our concepts about size and  numbers would change the way we think about everything. And, there are civilizations that did exactly that.

That is the essence of belief. We use words as though we know what they mean and behave and think as though they are facts. 

Beliefs are convictions based on a lack of proof. Our beliefs are so built into our way of thinking that it is difficult to separate real facts from imagined. In fact, we cannot separate our thinking from our beliefs, no more than we can separate ourselves into emotional, rational, spiritual and physical parts.

Yet we can put words on those things as though we really know what they are as though we can see something in our behaviour that identifies each separate part, but in fact, they are never separate. They are all part of the one and same person.

That is the problem.  Words do not necessarily match the facts.  We can talk about intelligence, for example, as though we really know it exists, but we have a difficult time proving what it is.

Just because we can speak a word that we can look up in a dictionary does not make it any more factual than another word which we do not believe.

What we believe now are truths. What others believe are myths and therefore evil.

Whether we choose to believe something or not  doesn't make us superior to anyone else or give us any special advantage. They are our beliefs.

Often we believe something because we are told that unless we believe it there will be consequences.  Believe this or you will be punished either now or later.

And we can all prove our beliefs because we have conducted a lot of mind experiments even if all thought experiments are just science-fiction. Every science fiction book I read when I was twelve was a thought experiment.

We all make assumptions and judgements living day to day.  Choose to believe or not believe, it makes no difference. You cannot prove a belief either way.  And you are still just believing.

Beliefs are something we know because we just think it is so. We interpret our experience as though it proves what we know.

And round and round we go again.

I believe it is important to believe and to allow others to have their own belief unless they threaten the well being of others.

But then, maybe it is all just tricks of the mind.