WHAT WE BELIEVE MATTERS
By Howard Thompson
Editor: The Texas Atheist newsletter
Copyright 1999 by Howard Thompson -------------------------------------------------------------
BELIEFS ARE IDEAS ABOUT REALITY
We believe lots of things. Different things. Conflicting things. What we believe is a personal choice, a choice we make in the privacy of our thoughts. Yet each of us thinks what we believe is more "true" than any other belief. Our differing beliefs makes you wonder if what we believe really matters.
Our beliefs are in our brains - brains that evolved to help us survive
and procreate. Our brains create a model of reality (our beliefs) in our
thoughts.
We believe our model of reality is truer than other ideas of reality. If
we did not believe it to be the most true, then we would believe that some
other idea was closer to an accurate reflection of reality.
Since our brains are not capable of knowing or understanding everything about the universe, what we believe is an approximation of reality. No belief can ever be 100% accurate or complete. We always deal with some degree of unknowns and uncertainty.
BELIEFS GUIDE OUR ACTIONS
We use our brain's model of reality to guide our actions. The more accurate our model of reality, the more likely we are to make beneficial decisions that increase our chances of survival, procreation, and indirectly, happiness. We are more likely to make decisions that harm us or our loved ones with less accurate reality models.
The value of a having a more accurate model of reality means that what we choose to believe matters. Believing a more accurate model of reality can enhance our lives.
THE ACCURACY OF BELIEFS
The rest of our brain functions don't affect the value of believing a more accurate model of reality. Our brain's processing speed, internal communications, memory capacity, emotional reactions and ability to analyze all operate within limits affected by the physical expression of our inherited genetics and our life experiences. Whatever our human abilities, we have the opportunity to make more life enhancing decisions with a more accurate model of reality than we do with a less accurate model of reality.
The accuracy of our reality model also affects our ability to absorb
and profitably use new information. If your model of reality is riddled
with errors,
it becomes harder to relate new information usably because a false model's
structure of cause and effect relationships has a higher error rate.
Three truisms about the accuracy of our models of reality can be inferred:
1. The accuracy with which a model of reality portrays reality affects the likelihood of life enhancing decisions.
2. The accuracy with which a model of reality portrays reality affects
the utility
of newly acquired information.
3. Our model of reality can never represent reality completely or perfectly.
We should all want the most accurate model of reality our brains can achieve.
The value of an accurate model of reality becomes a goal we can use to
evaluate our beliefs. The challenge for each of us then becomes learning
about reality and choosing the most accurate model. The challenge is to
comprehend as much of reality as we can and accept it because it matters.
Here is where atheists are the same as supernaturalists. We both want
the "truth" about reality. Atheists differ from supernaturalists
in how we decide which beliefs are more accurate representations of reality.
Atheists base their models of reality on humanity's best evidence derived
from scientific methodology. Supernaturalists base their models of reality
on untestable divine relelations.
The advantage of atheistic reality models is that they are more consistent
with humanity's best knowledge of reality.
WHAT IS ATHEISM?
The narrowest definition of atheism is having no belief about gods. Some atheists generalize this to an acceptance of the material universe as a positive expression of rejecting magic as unreal. How do atheists arrive at their acceptance of material reality?
Atheism arises from a way of thinking about reality. We rely upon external evidence to verify internal perceptions. We use reason, logic, and scientific methodology to observe the universe, collect data, validate data, test ideas, and repeat the findings. We know that our knowledge is incomplete and that we must incorporate new information into our model of reality.
Ideas of atheism are, of course, disputed by freethinking, skeptical atheist minds that come up with their own ideas for the boundaries and meaning of atheism. At the end of this brief essay, I describe some principles of atheism as an example of one way to describe atheism beyond the single aspect of not believing in gods. Thinking about reality
Atheists and supernaturalists think differently. Supernaturalists believe magic transcends material reality. They believe magical forces can violate the laws of physics by an act of will. Supernaturalists interpret internal thoughts and feelings as evidence for magic, independent of external confirmation.
Atheists regard supernaturalist thinking as irrational. Magical forces do not operate in an orderly, consistent fashion. They may or may not act the same way in the same conditions. There is no way to prove or disprove the existence of forces that operate at the whim of undetectable entities who violate cause and effect relationships. Therefore, there is no rational reason to interpret untestable events as evidence for magical forces.
It is as if supernaturalists look at the world through colored glasses. If you always put on red tinted glasses, everything always looks like some shade of red. That's what happens with supernaturalists. They are programmed to interpret external events and internal feelings as evidence for supernatural forces. They see magic all around them without regard for verifying the evidence or testing magical cause and effect relationships.
Atheists try to look at reality without any glasses to filter reality into a predetermined form. I say "try" because our inherited brain functions and cultural programming act like "glasses" through which we interpret our perceptions of reality. Our ideas of reality are only as accurate as our perceptual accuracy and our brain's ability to represent those perceptions as abstract thought composites.
The atheist is helped by his rational thinking in his attempt to think about reality accurately. Atheists are skeptics when it comes to accepting something new into their model of reality, especially when it cannot be tested beyond hearsay claims. Atheists do not presume magical causes for unexplained events. Atheists try not to project their hopes and fears onto external reality in hopes of seeing cause and effect relationships.
ATHEIST PRINCIPLES
There are widely diverging opinions among atheists about the definition and meaning of atheism. The principles of atheism offered here are one way of describing atheism that arises from rational thinking that leads to an acceptance of material reality. Hopefully, as atheists begin to discuss the implications of their atheism, some commonality of ideas may emerge.
These principles address several questions. What are the best ways of evaluating reality? What is the nature of reality? How does reality work? What is the source of life? How do we deal with unknowns? What is the nature of our humanity? What is the nature of our conscious and sub-conscious perceptions? I hope these idea serve as a beginning for your own examination of these issues leading, of course, to your own individual choices of what to believe is an accurate model of reality.
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PRINCIPLES OF ATHEISM
Atheists accept reality.
1. Reason and science are our best methods for developing an accurate
description of reality.
2. Science confirms the existence of a orderly, consistent material reality.
3. Science has produced no evidence for the existence of magic.
Atheists accept the unknown.
4. We don't and can't know every thing about reality.
5. New discoveries are expected to be governed by known or newly discovered
physical laws.
6. An accurate concept of reality accommodates new discoveries.
Atheists accept their humanity.
7. Physical interactions of matter and energy are the source of life.
8. Evolutionary theory is the best current explanation for the human species.
9. Material reality is indifferent to human aspirations.
10. All of our thoughts and emotions are brain functions.
11. Our brain-mind and body are inseparably interactive.
12. Atheists accept humanity's naturally selected capabilities and behaviors.
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What we choose to believe about reality does matter. It matters because it affects our life choices and hence the kind of life we lead. We can respect the right of others to choose their own beliefs. However, respecting the right to choose beliefs does not mean we should accept all ideas of reality as being equally accurate or valuable. Ideas of reality are not equal. Each idea of reality is a more or less accurate idea in comparison with competing ideas.
Belief matters because accuracy matters.
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