Daniel Dennett - What is Belief?

Everyone has beliefs—some are simple and basic (e.g., my name, age), others complex and controversial (e.g., God? Soul? Politics? Morality?). But what is the concept of 'belief'? What does it take for some statement to be a 'belief'?

[matthewphilip]

Islam doesn't mean subjection, it means submission.

[johnrobbins]

WHAT IS BELIEF ?
Belief is the perception plus the trust that something is “REAL”
Belief is the trust in that which is being perceived or seen or thought or conceived of as “REAL” and that it actually exists!
Belief is knowing without a doubt. John A. Robbins

[daviddelaney]

I was disappointed in reading Dennett’s book The Intentional Stance published by MIT press. He seems inly to be repackaging Naive Realism.

[kallianpublico]

"...informational states that are predictable by behavior.."
Conviction is acting(behaving) consistently on one's beliefs. But can one's behavior be predicted just from conviction? Is conviction like being an electron: like charges repel and opposite charges attract? Or is it less configurable? Is it a closed game or an open one? And just how many opportunities are there for an electron to behave like an electron? Maybe there's more to being an electron than charge or spin.

[residentatheist]

If you don't have the truth of something you can believe whatever you want. If you know the truth about something belief is not an option. Truth and Belief are mutually exclusive. Some people accept belief as truth but they do so without any thinking involved. They accept what others tell them whether the information is true or not.

[ricklannoye]

FAITH, ACCORDING TO JESUS, WAS *NOT* BLIND BELIEF!

"Without faith, it's impossible to please God, " is a quote from Hebrew 11:6 which is very often used by Neo Evangelicals (formerly known as Fundamentalists) to convince their followers and potential converts they must abandon all reason, stop using the brain God gave them and just obey without question...or else!
However, when Jesus talked about "faith, " that was NOT what he meant? No! We know this, for example, because a man once came to him, first asking his disciples to heal his son suffering from epilepsy and a speech deficit, but their efforts failed. Jesus then inquired about the boy's symptoms and, when the father asked him to help, Jesus said, "Anything is possible to the one who PISTEUONTI, often translated as "believes." The father then said he PISTEUO ("believed"), but asked Jesus to help his APISTIA, ("unbelief").
Most of the time, Neo Evangelical preachers and teachers would have us think Jesus was talking about "belief" in the way we today mean "thinking something is true without any evidence" or "accepting something as true without question."
But if this were the case, why would the father of the boy say he didn't have ENOUGH of what was really just BLIND FAITH? Blind faith, the kind which doesn't question, nor requires any evidence, does NOT come in partial quantities! You either have it all or you have none!
So, what sort of "believing" was Jesus actually talking about? Well, Jesus alluded to this other sort of "believing" or "faith" when he compared it to a mustard seed (in Matthew 17:20), something that is effective no matter "how much" you have! In other words, he wasn't talking about "faith" or "belief" in the sense of blindly accepting something to be true, but the sort of CONFIDENCE that comes from EVIDENCE and EXPERIENCE!
When you look up and see the sky is blue, you don't have to keep trying to make yourself believe it's blue! It's not that you have "more faith" either! No! You KNOW the sky is blue because you have the evidence to prove it! And on the following day, before the sun rises, you have the CONFIDENCE that the sky will, once again, be blue (barring a rain storm), because your EXPERIENCE informs you that it was blue every time before so, very likely, it will be again! Now, maybe we can use the word "faith" in this scenario, but it's fundamentally different from making yourself think the sky is PINK, because someone said you had better believe it, or else!
Think about it! If all you ever do is blindly believe whatever you're told or told the bible says or means, you're bound to accept whatever the very first group of proselytizers get to you! You're "salvation" hinges only on the pure luck of the draw!
Once you have solid evidence to support any given assertion, you then have "faith" in it, but not the blind sort! Once you have the experience of, let's say, successfully performing a medical procedure many times, you "believe" in your ability to do it again!
This is why, when Jesus heard his disciples had failed to heal this boy, his frustration with them had nothing to do with their inability to make themselves think something miraculous would happen by, somehow, pushing away every doubt from their minds...but that they were lacking the sort of confidence they should have by then, confidence based on knowing what to do and that, because they had successfully done it so many times before (maybe because Jesus was standing there looking on), they should have been able to do it again, even though Jesus was off doing something else at the time!
Tragically, the translators of the bible often render the original words of the Bible with ones that help false preachers and teachers perpetuate their false views, and such is the case with PISTEUO. After all, they couldn't very well get so many people to set aside their reason, abandon Science, and stop using the brains God gave them, were they to tell their church members to rely on SOLID EVIDENCE for whatever they're to regard as true!
No, it's only when they can connive or frighten them into blind belief, they can then get control of the minds of others, and from there, use and abuse them to accomplish their ulterior agenda!


Are you a victim of Bible Abuse? Get help at ricklannoye.com/contact

[matthewphilip]

Animals have beliefs but they don't have opinions? I wonder why Dan D believes that? Could chimps, for example, have opinions? Two chimps gazing at a waterfall. One has the opinion that it's just water, falling; the other has the opinion that there is some kind of force behind it.

[thecoopstr]

Creating beliefs is the bonding of thought with emotion through neurochemicals (indoctri-nurturing) motivated by the pursuit/avoidance of mammal pleasure/pain with the purpose of surviving and to promote and expand the species driven by human specialities of adaptation derived from exploration. 'What' you 'believe' is simply 'content'

[jkang]

According to him, humans are nothing but materials. Therefore, what he said is nothing but vibrations of materials

[matthewphilip]

Higher education is demonstrably fitness-reducing? Why might Dan D believe that?

[robertracicot]

Who's here to understand Trumpism and the rise of a fascist party in the USA?

[ashnur]

"only humans have". Dennett knows this from where exactly?

[JungleJargon]

Why do you believe mindless things made you?

[marcduperron]

I'm an atheist. Don't believe in Gods nor Santa Claus. But Daniel, with the red and withe suit would look like Santa.
I really admire Mr. Dennett.

[innerlocus]

Just when I started to accept listening to two on a merry-go-round, they put the host on a teeter-totter for our entertainment. Where is my dramamine? Damn it!

[ThalesPo]

What did he mean by "fitness"?

[Wittgen_stein]

I dont know why i find it hard to think of this old croo k as a Philospher.

[drsaeedakram]

Follow islam and everything will become clear

[bradalacki]

Pretty shallow for a highly educated fellow. Belief is not merely acceptance of certain information but the trust in a person developed through relationship with that person

[BradHolkesvig]

The biblical "belief" and "faith" are two different things. Faith comes when the voice of God speaks words into your mind that can easily be heard. When the voice of God spoke, "I AM YOUR CREATOR" into my mind with a very loud voice, I instantly knew it was my Creator. Belief comes from hearing us saints preach the voice of God to anyone chosen to listen to it. They believe some or all of the knowledge that flows from the voice of God.