Hi. I made an account here because I wanted to make a post. Subsequently, I found this thread. This is my second post here. I may or may not make many posts on this site at all.
I identify more with Christianity than rationalism. I have already heard that this community is going to jump on me if I say too much, so I plan on limiting on my comments accordingly. As far as I know, I have an internally consistent belief structure inside the context of Christianity, and I see my ideal belief structure to be that presented in the Bible. I enjoy this site occasionally because I appreciate having clearer thought processes, and these thought processes are able to assist my understanding of God. I do wish more of the posts on this site were focused on presenting new thought processes rather than advocating specific beliefs which those thought processes lead to. I have to skip over articles that mention evolutionary psychology because I believe that the human mind (and soul) is constructed differently.
I am visiting this site presently because I have a question best suited to this audience of thinkers. I was originally going to post on open thread, but I saw that this thread was also a space for questions, so I am including it here. I am going to avoid specifics because it involves God, so I’m going to speak in as general terms as I can manage while maintaining clarity. I am coming to you all because I seek knowledge on how to think, and I would appreciate it if you all do your best to be aware of any anti-theism biases which would label my own logical difficulties as a result of my theism.
I have a particular belief which I am fairly sure is true. This belief entered into my mind about a year and a half ago. In the time since I have believed that belief, I have extended that belief into many other beliefs which, at the time, I believed followed. Now, a year and a half later, I have collected a separate framework of beliefs. I am presently trying to integrate the two systems, and in light of my newer framework of beliefs, I find that the extensions of my old core belief are all incorrect—those beliefs are worth dissolving—partly because that core belief extended itself on top of other beliefs which I have since dissolved. I have currently decided that my solution is to salvage the old core belief, integrate it into by new belief structure, and weed out the obsolete extensions of that core belief.
However, I still have a problem. Integrating the old core belief into my new belief structure is awkward. I value the expectations associated with my new belief structure, and I do not value the expectations associated with the old core belief. If I snuff out the expectations of the old core belief, then I essentially snuff out the belief itself. My problem is that I believe that the old core belief is true, and even if I eliminate the old core belief, I will never eliminate my belief-in-belief about it, and resolving my expectations will potentially force me to lie to myself. I do not value walking around with a contradiction inside my head, especially if it’s a contradiction I know is there. I would not particularly like to force myself to avoid the contradiction because the belief regards a particularly important subject, and I would also not like to have a “semantic stop-sign” attached to the idea. I seek truth.
Welcome to Less Wrong! I’m going to restate your dilemma in my own words to make sure I’m understanding you before I advise: you are aware of two different mutually exclusive things you could believe. You believe that the belief you currently hold is true, but you also believe that the other one makes better predictions. Is that correct?
Hi. I made an account here because I wanted to make a post. Subsequently, I found this thread. This is my second post here. I may or may not make many posts on this site at all.
I identify more with Christianity than rationalism. I have already heard that this community is going to jump on me if I say too much, so I plan on limiting on my comments accordingly. As far as I know, I have an internally consistent belief structure inside the context of Christianity, and I see my ideal belief structure to be that presented in the Bible. I enjoy this site occasionally because I appreciate having clearer thought processes, and these thought processes are able to assist my understanding of God. I do wish more of the posts on this site were focused on presenting new thought processes rather than advocating specific beliefs which those thought processes lead to. I have to skip over articles that mention evolutionary psychology because I believe that the human mind (and soul) is constructed differently.
I am visiting this site presently because I have a question best suited to this audience of thinkers. I was originally going to post on open thread, but I saw that this thread was also a space for questions, so I am including it here. I am going to avoid specifics because it involves God, so I’m going to speak in as general terms as I can manage while maintaining clarity. I am coming to you all because I seek knowledge on how to think, and I would appreciate it if you all do your best to be aware of any anti-theism biases which would label my own logical difficulties as a result of my theism.
I have a particular belief which I am fairly sure is true. This belief entered into my mind about a year and a half ago. In the time since I have believed that belief, I have extended that belief into many other beliefs which, at the time, I believed followed. Now, a year and a half later, I have collected a separate framework of beliefs. I am presently trying to integrate the two systems, and in light of my newer framework of beliefs, I find that the extensions of my old core belief are all incorrect—those beliefs are worth dissolving—partly because that core belief extended itself on top of other beliefs which I have since dissolved. I have currently decided that my solution is to salvage the old core belief, integrate it into by new belief structure, and weed out the obsolete extensions of that core belief.
However, I still have a problem. Integrating the old core belief into my new belief structure is awkward. I value the expectations associated with my new belief structure, and I do not value the expectations associated with the old core belief. If I snuff out the expectations of the old core belief, then I essentially snuff out the belief itself. My problem is that I believe that the old core belief is true, and even if I eliminate the old core belief, I will never eliminate my belief-in-belief about it, and resolving my expectations will potentially force me to lie to myself. I do not value walking around with a contradiction inside my head, especially if it’s a contradiction I know is there. I would not particularly like to force myself to avoid the contradiction because the belief regards a particularly important subject, and I would also not like to have a “semantic stop-sign” attached to the idea. I seek truth.
Thoughts?
Welcome to Less Wrong! I’m going to restate your dilemma in my own words to make sure I’m understanding you before I advise: you are aware of two different mutually exclusive things you could believe. You believe that the belief you currently hold is true, but you also believe that the other one makes better predictions. Is that correct?