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Old 06-14-2012, 03:35 PM
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Default Believing for comfort
This ties in with my other thread on symbolism. I've been thinking more and more lately about what is wrong with believing for comfort. Does anyone really believe we can, or ever will, understand everything? I feel safe assuming most of us here are pretty caught up in religious ideas and arguments. What's the harm in believing in something you may even recognize as false if it helps you sleep? I never expected to be searching for answers for so long I don't want my life to be pondering useless questions. I plan on being a criminial psychologist, and I've gone far beyond what I need to know about religious psychology to do what I want in life.

Obviously some beliefs cause harm. It is comfortable to scapegoat and kill people in some cases, so apply some logical morality to the OP.

You can discuss, I may or may not reapond.
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  #2  
Old 06-14-2012, 03:40 PM
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Believing something for comfort does not seem to me an especially effective method for arriving at a true belief. But I'm pressed to find anything wrong with it -- so long as the beliefs one arrives at are not imposed on others.
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Old 06-14-2012, 03:41 PM
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Originally Posted by The Doors of Perception View Post
This ties in with my other thread on symbolism. I've been thinking more and more lately about what is wrong with believing for comfort. Does anyone really believe we can, or ever will, understand everything?
I'm convinced more people put much more effort into not understanding things (quite a lot of things).

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Originally Posted by The Doors of Perception View Post
I feel safe assuming most of us here are pretty caught up in religious ideas and arguments. What's the harm in believing in something you may even recognize as false if it helps you sleep?
Lying to yourself is a bad habit to get into.

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Originally Posted by The Doors of Perception View Post
I never expected to be searching for answers for so long I don't want my life to be pondering useless questions. I plan on being a criminial psychologist, and I've gone far beyond what I need to know about religious psychology to do what I want in life.

Obviously some beliefs cause harm. It is comfortable to scapegoat and kill people in some cases, so apply some logical morality to the OP.

You can discuss, I may or may not reapond.
*shrugs*
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Old 06-14-2012, 04:10 PM
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Frankly I don't see anything wrong with people who believe in something for "comfort".. A lot of things happen in life to people and they sometimes would rather accept that there is a God and an after-life for reasons of comfort...very often this happens when a loved one has passed away or there is a great loss.

Until it happens to you personally you may not understand this..

As far as "understanding everything"? ... No I doubt we can "understand everything" nor can we "know" everything... Humility is called for.
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Old 06-14-2012, 04:11 PM
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I don't think I can choose out of this process. Every belief that I have provides some kind of comfort. My human perceptions can be relied on in almost every case, but if they had never let me down I'd be a lucky man. I continue to believe they show me the truth because I like to think the universe I perceive is real and functions as I perceive it. But we can't know for sure if it will change two seconds fro- OH GOD WHAT IS THAT THING AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH

J/k, anyway, yeah I think belief for comfort is the only type. At least the only type I've ever experienced.
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Old 06-14-2012, 04:30 PM
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Originally Posted by The Doors of Perception View Post
What's the harm in believing in something you may even recognize as false if it helps you sleep?
What you're talking about can't (shouldn't) properly be described as "believing." It's "pretending."
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Old 06-14-2012, 05:16 PM
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I don't particularly think believing in something for comfort is effective or virtuous.

I'm not even really sure how one would consciously do that. It seems to me that any belief that occurs for comfort is likely to be understood by the believer to be a belief in something that is true.

My parents have beliefs that seem to comfort them. They talk about them all the time. I generally just listen and occasionally ask a question or two for curiosity, since I don't really feel like trying to dissuade them from something they find comfortable. It only gets awkward if they ask me if I believe what they believe and then try to ask why not, or ask for specifics.
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Old 06-14-2012, 05:28 PM
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Isn't any kind of understanding for comfort?
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Old 06-14-2012, 05:34 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by The Doors of Perception View Post
Isn't any kind of understanding for comfort?
I understand how this keyboard works.

I understand how to use my oven.

I understand algebra.

These are things I happened to have learned, and find to be useful.

For mysterious questions, one would likely do well to not be uncomfortable due to not knowing things.
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Old 06-14-2012, 05:37 PM
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I think the comfort lies in truth or thinking its the truth.
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