I’m pretty sure I believed instead of belief in belief, but since my beliefs didn’t match those of any organized religion, I didn’t have a community of other believers around me.
I’ve encountered a lot of theists whose beliefs didn’t match those of any organized religion. They tend to assume their religious outlook is exceptional or unusual (when I first started seriously investigating people’s religious beliefs, it astonished me how little real communication most people have about their beliefs with people outside a very small circle,) but they tend to form fairly similar beliefs. I would definitely not say that they’re any less prone to belief in belief than theists in organized sects; if anything, I think they’re more so, because they tend to let go of those beliefs that are most falsifiable.
My beliefs were cobbled together from SF and fantasy novels; they were Scientology-style weird. They were also falsifiable and falsified themselves, and the atheist videos made me stop suppressing the cognitive dissonance.
I’ve encountered a lot of theists whose beliefs didn’t match those of any organized religion. They tend to assume their religious outlook is exceptional or unusual (when I first started seriously investigating people’s religious beliefs, it astonished me how little real communication most people have about their beliefs with people outside a very small circle,) but they tend to form fairly similar beliefs. I would definitely not say that they’re any less prone to belief in belief than theists in organized sects; if anything, I think they’re more so, because they tend to let go of those beliefs that are most falsifiable.
My beliefs were cobbled together from SF and fantasy novels; they were Scientology-style weird. They were also falsifiable and falsified themselves, and the atheist videos made me stop suppressing the cognitive dissonance.