Belief or Truth-Which to Live With

A belief is what we have been told, especially during childhood which our elders strongly believe as facts and truths.  It doesn’t need to be supported with any true-life evidence rather it mainly consists of quotes and sayings of elders.  These beliefs become stronger with the passage of time to an extent, that people are ready to sacrifice their lives in anticipation of preserving the Belief as truth.

We tend to belittle facts and evidences that challenges our beliefs and overvalue everything else which confirms them, whatever it might be. In this clash of ideas, we filter out any truths and arguments from the opposing side. We are literally frozen in our stubborn thinking, and it becomes increasingly harder to change our established patterns of thinking.

A belief can come from different sources, including:

• A person’s own experiences or experiments
• The acceptance of cultural and social norms (religion)
• What other people say (education)

Obsession with Supernatural

Many of our belief’s are related to our way of thinking and love of supernatural. In every culture there are many taboos being observed as faith, with no rational thinking and facts. Events which we don’t understand are often attributed to supernatural. In the past, the supernatural was used to explain the unexplainable. Medieval witchcraft denunciations were a way of excluding the mentally ill. Many of us hang on to certain superstitions and rituals such as wearing ‘lucky’ items of clothing and ‘black cat crossing the way’ deemed as negative.

The Power of Transference

We tend to find the perfect, according to our mental capabilities, and try to follow. This followership becomes an impeccable part of our life. We are thrilled with charisma and leadership of certain people in our life, that become our heroes. This brings belief’s which are drilled into our minds by the influencers. This belief develops and at certain point of time we totally close our eyes and undergo a trance of accepting anything from the influencers, this is especially the case in religious leaders.

Ruminating

The process of continuously thinking about the same thoughts, which tend to be sad or dark, is called rumination. People believe that by ruminating, you’ll gain insight into your life or a problem, instead it creates depression and leads to false and deceptive beliefs about certain events or people. A mistake from another person is taken so seriously, that we never forgive, and make a firm belief that he will always do the same.

Selective Exposure:

Many of us are exposed to a limited pool of information, which makes us short-sighted and eventually we develop rigid beliefs towards life. We tend to lean toward sources and information that fit with our existing views, and even actively seek out. Even with a multitude of sources available online, people do not seek out information that contradicts what they believe. A present study shows that both decided and undecided individuals show a propensity to selectively expose themselves to positive information, although with different experiences and consequences.

Illusion of Truth:

Repetition makes a fact seem truer, regardless of whether it is or not. “Repeat a lie often enough and it becomes the truth”, is a law of propaganda often attributed to the Nazi Joseph Goebbels. We are surrounded by different media sources, which are employing all sorts of psychological approaches to affect our thinking. This thinking over a period of time evolves into a belief.

The Backfire Effect:

People do not view different evidence about a subject with a sense of impartiality. When we become invested in a point of view or a set of facts about the world or ourselves, contrary evidence causes us to double down on our beliefs, since we become convinced with our self-evolved ideas.

Confirmation Bias

Confirmation bias is a person’s tendency to accept information that confirms their views or prejudices while ignoring or rejecting contradicting information. This prevents them from seeing things objectively.

Having faith in something means no proof is required

This is every so often the case, when it comes to religious point of views. In fact, majority of concepts in religion are mainly based on the fact that no proofs are required. This is because religion covers ideas and topics that are beyond the ability of human perceptions or understanding. Islam is the only religion which not only provides a comprehensive information about different sciences, but its explanation by Prophet Mohammad ﷺenlightens many aspects of life, which are being discovered and proven. but in order to embrace the facts in Quran we have to keep our minds open and let go of our established BELIEF.

Can we change Beliefs with facts

Convincing someone to change their mind is really the process of convincing them to change social and moral values which signifies them in a community. Changing their beliefs creates a sense of insecurity of acceptance amongst the people they live in. In religious beliefs it becomes very sensitive and tricky situation, since the concepts are so hard, it virtually becomes impossible to convince even with the best of facts.

We can affect the thinking of a person, but the process is long term and mythological.

• Share their thoughts, Seeking common ground

You have to be a good listener; patience is the key. Find out the beliefs of the other person you are in agreement with, instead of opening your bale of facts and figures.

• Develop curiosity

Find the key points which might create a question about beliefs, emphasize the gaps between facts and understandings.

• Weaken the connections

Prime the person to see failings in the logic connecting their belief to the opinion which is evidenced with facts.

• Give people choice

Give choices to the person to think and make decision, instead of one hard and fast rule.

• Let people create their own options

Sometimes it is good to let the people create their own option out of a set of information. But this set of information must be carefully devised to keep the facts in place.

• Reconnect the beliefs:

Never attempt to change the beliefs with facts; instead show how a different conclusion better reflects those beliefs or the other way around.

What Makes Beliefs Strong

Repetition:

The same way the unactual beliefs have developed, the truth repeated and reinforced by the selective presentation of facts, often creates a strong persistence.

Identity:

Obviously the strong the identity with certain belief is, the more resistant the person will be. Convincing anyone, that truth will be better identification is helpful in majority of cases.