Inside the brain of every human being is a model of reality. This model is known variously as a belief system, a schema, a worldview, or a conceptual framework. One definition of the word “religion” is occasionally applied to this concept. For consistency, I will refer to it as a belief system.
Every day, one’s belief system exerts an enormous influence on one’s behavior and thus one’s emotions. It is a network of ideas about the world. Accumulated over a lifetime, it contains millions of bits of information. The exact physiological structures which allow the storage of this information is not known at present.
From the day one is born, information about the world pours in through the senses. Consciously and unconsciously, hypotheses are constructed, tested, discarded and revised. Science is going on nearly all the time in nearly everybody.
The future of Earth depends primarily on the future of the human community, which in turn depends primarily on intentional human behavior. This behavior is profoundly and constantly affected by human beliefs. Thus, to understand and generate an accurate picture of the probable human future, it is essential to have an understanding of the nature of human belief systems: their origin, evolution, and impact on behavior.
One’s belief system should be continually expanding and improving as one encounters new information. It should continually grow larger and more truthful.
The world is a complex, potentially dangerous, hard to understand place. Hence the appeal of simple, easy to understand, yet wrong explanations.
It seems to me that one of the greatest impediments to solving social problems is our ignorance of how beliefs are formed and maintained.
Our models of the world are built from languages. They may be composed of words, pictures, numbers, or sounds.
Science is fundamentally different from other belief formation systems because it is both self-correcting and has predictive power. That is, it can make statements about future events and discoveries that actually come true.
The more complex the subject, and the more emotional stake we have in it, the more mistaken beliefs, misunderstandings, and controversy will surround it.
Ways in which a new belief may be handled:
1. Rejected
2. Accepted with no belief system change
3. Accepted with belief system change
Specific Belief Systems
Atheism
Epicureanism
Hedonism
Humanism
Religion
Superstition
Taoism