Belief, blind spots, and handles.
Regular readers will have no trouble remembering I am no fan of “belief”. Now, I don’t have any issues with the original meaning of the term, but it has been hanging out with some characters, so it has acquired some meaning it never needed and nobody wants. So I discard belief in favor of faith for a couple of reasons chief of which is: Belief is always something you choose; faith chooses you.
Anyway, choosing belief in many things can be a specific and legitimate issue. One of the common beliefs a lot of people are choosing now is “Gay people are nice and just want to be left alone to hang chintz curtains and look fabulous”. This is of course untrue, when a known leftist like Bill Maher talks about a gay mafia, you know it’s not only true but more insidious than you can imagine. But if you choose the belief that there is no such thing, that gays are just nice people and aren’t out to harm anyone anywhere, you have created for yourself a blind spot. You have chosen to accept a lie, and you will be blind to any truth that comes your way because the lie comforts you and you can and do dismiss anyone who arrives with the truth- or really, even a calmly posited dissenting opinion, as a bigot etc.
What that blind spot does, is it creates a handle. It gives the people in whom you have placed your trust a method to steer your behavior, and they do- often in ways you would not ordinarly allow yourself to be steered. I use the gay example just because it is prevalent at the time but the issue is forever old, this sort of belief/blind spot and the resultant handles have been going on forever. The civil war was a widespread and classic example. The whole two party political system is likewise. The various schisms in all different religons.
I work very hard not to have beliefs, for these reasons. I don’t always succeed. I arrive at my opinions, hopefully without prejudices and without beliefs and without the handles of other people guiding me toward or away from anything. I feel that it is important to protect my tribe. My tribe is humanity.
Too bad everyone doesn’t think that way.
The founders of this nation tried to protect us from beliefs too Og. Article VI, paragraph 3: “…no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.” Freedom of conscience applies not simply to an organized religion. As I’ve pointed out before, the definition of religion includes “a pursuit or interest to which someone ascribes supreme importance.”
Our states are being subjected to religious tests be it the demand that they agree with the supremely important belief of climate change being driven by human actions or they agree with the latest supremely manufactured fad of the day that individuals be forcibly enslaved by any other group that’s been granted special status.
As you imply, unless we find a way to get a handle on these beliefs that arise on a whim they will indeed put a handle on us.
I believe most people are a holes. My faith is that even they are beloved children of god.
Kind of a toss up on which wins.