On Mon, Sep 17, 2012 at 12:41 PM, ERIC P. CHARLES <[email protected]> wrote:
> Sarbajit, > Trying to make things succinct, I think the argument Nick is trying to > make goes something like this: > > To act a certain way in a certain situation *is *to "have a belief." > Thus, our lives are full of beliefs, which are variously consistent or > inconsistent depending on how you examine our lives. When people claim to > lack deeply held beliefs, either 1) they don't know what they believe > (i.e., lack meta-awareness), or 2) they just don't want to talk about their > beliefs (i.e., are lying). Thus, in general, the claim to not be > philosophical indicates a rigidity of belief, rather than a lack of > belief. > > Nick's beliefs include (i.e., Nick acts *as if* the following things were > true): The world can be improved. Thinking is virtuous. Things have causes. > > His eventual question seemed to be: Do these beliefs make me religious, in > some general sense? > > I think there is a core of beliefs which we all share: the world exists, other people are beings like myself, language can be used for communication. Everyone acts as if these things are true, and once you've accepted these beliefs, there are a whole lot of derivative beliefs that you can work out: there exist material effects which have material causes, the material life and health of people can be better or worse depending on how they pursue it, acquired experience with the material world is useful and worth pondering, and so on. Such is the life of a material girl living in a material world. I think that core of beliefs only becomes religious if you believe that the core of beliefs and those derivable from it comprise everything that is real. Now you've added an additional belief to core, that the core is all there is. This appears to be a tenable religion until you consider how it treats members of other religions: they're all certifiably insane. That doesn't work for me, because I still believe that other people are beings like myself. Faiths which classify the unfaithful as subhuman have proven to be very difficult neighbors historically. -- rec --
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