Belief
What do you believe in? Can your beliefs be justified? More importantly, would you hold on to that belief, even to the very end?These are the questions that I have asked myself countless times before, and now I ask of you to keep these in mind, as we take a slide down the slippery slope and shake the foundations of what we hold true.
But what is belief? The belief that I speak of, as defined by www.dictionary.com, is the mental acceptance of and conviction in the truth, actuality, or validity of something. It is also something believed or accepted as true, especially a particular tenet or a body of tenets accepted by a group of persons. The important thing to note here is that, firstly, there may not be any evidence to support whatever people believe in, because to have any real, hard evidence to support a belief would instantly make it a fact and therefore place it beyond dispute, unless counter-evidence can be produced to prove otherwise. The second, and perhaps rather worrying thing to note is that according to the definition, a belief can only held true if two or more individuals share similar views. This means that if someone believes in something that no one else believes in, he is taken to be mentally unsound and therefore untrustworthy.
But, what if the crazy man is right? What if what he believes in is correct and we are the ones holding on to falsehood? What if we are the crazy ones? Surely that cannot be. There are others, rational, dependable people, who feel the way I do. Surely they cannot all be wrong. Perhaps not, but I would like to tell you a story.
There was once a man of science who studied the stars and wrote down many things that we now hold to be true today. He made a huge discovery that would have revolutionised the world of astral science at that time, and told of his discovery to society. No one believed him. Even his own colleagues, intelligent men of science who relied on facts and not commonly held beliefs, condemned him. The church had him prosecuted on charges of sacrilege, and he was eventually found guilty and executed.
That man was Galileo Galilei, and thanks to him, we knew that the world is round long before we could see it for ourselves from space.
Now, would you consider Galileo to be crazy? According to definition, he was crazy then but not now, which is quite illogical. Similarly, what we hold to be true today is only because society believes it to be that way, and may not necessarily be that way tomorrow. Now, I ask of you to recall the second question. Can your beliefs be justified? As I have earlier mentioned, if they can be supported by real, hard evidence then they are not beliefs anymore but facts, and I have ruled out support by majority because we have to admit that people tend to make mistakes more often than we would like. That leaves us with belief that is without evidence and without popular support, only your conviction. That kind of belief is the most important kind of belief, because it is what determines our character and mental strength. We call it faith.
Throughout history, we have seen many people who believed so much in an idea that they have fought for it, bled for it, even died for it. And it is people like Galileo, William Wallace, Pope John Paul II and Abraham Lincoln, among others, who have shaped the world and what we deem as right and wrong.
Now, I ask of you one more thing. Take a good look at yourself once in a while. Shake the pillars of your beliefs. Question the stability of your faith. Jolt the steadfastness of your perspectives. And if they still stand, if you can still trust in them, then hold on to your beliefs and never let anyone or anything shake you, even if you are all alone.
Why? Because the world is round.
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