Belief isn't inherently bad you can believe in observational facts. It's faith that's dangerous. Any system that requires you to maintain beliefs without observable facts or in the face of negative confirmational facts is a problem.
this post was submitted on 04 Jul 2025
120 points (100.0% liked)
Showerthoughts
35740 readers
1252 users here now
A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. The most popular seem to be lighthearted clever little truths, hidden in daily life.
Here are some examples to inspire your own showerthoughts:
- Both “200” and “160” are 2 minutes in microwave math
- When you’re a kid, you don’t realize you’re also watching your mom and dad grow up.
- More dreams have been destroyed by alarm clocks than anything else
Rules
- All posts must be showerthoughts
- The entire showerthought must be in the title
- No politics
- If your topic is in a grey area, please phrase it to emphasize the fascinating aspects, not the dramatic aspects. You can do this by avoiding overly politicized terms such as "capitalism" and "communism". If you must make comparisons, you can say something is different without saying something is better/worse.
- A good place for politics is c/politicaldiscussion
- Posts must be original/unique
- Adhere to Lemmy's Code of Conduct and the TOS
If you made it this far, showerthoughts is accepting new mods. This community is generally tame so its not a lot of work, but having a few more mods would help reports get addressed a little sooner.
Whats it like to be a mod? Reports just show up as messages in your Lemmy inbox, and if a different mod has already addressed the report, the message goes away and you never worry about it.
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
My dogma defines my in-group, and my in-group can’t be wrong because then that would mean that I am wrong, which I categorically can’t be. And even if I was wrong, then I would no longer be part of my in-group. Therefore, your science and logic and proof must be wrong if it contradicts my dogma.
Okay, but what about your catma? Does that define your naptimes and your need to make people believe that you must've meant to smash your face into the table leg after darting through the house?
load more comments
(1 replies)
load more comments
(2 replies)
I believe I'd like another drink.
Beliefs lead to actions. Actions affect others. It's not super complicated.
Lots of things lead to actions. Feelings, habits, inertia, inspiration... Beliefs are not special in this.
I think a lot of the time "beliefs" are more about social signaling than actual worldview. Most people aren't going to do anything to go against the grain for the sake of their beliefs, so one belief or another isn't going to make a difference for anything that matters.
Well yeah. What you believe is literally all reality is. Of course it's important. I believe I'm sitting in a chair typing on my phone right now - if I didn't have those beliefs, my reality would be completely different. That's important
Judging by all the vaguely hostile comments, you seem to have struck a chord here.
Well that's a terrible truth.
In my view, beliefs are important. To me, a person is built from their beliefs.
Beliefs are mutable and can change for all sorts of reasons, at all sorts of speeds, and in all sorts of ways. They're not permanent, but I do think they're fundamental to the character of a person.
if a belief is a model/theory/assumption that a person will not change regardless of evidence against it, it is by definition a delusion.
If a belief is an opinion, it is a personal statement. Statements like “Vim is the best IDE” are really conveying the information “I prefer Vim over all others IDEs” which is a true statement.
If a belief is a hypothesis then the person holding it will accept if it ends up being wrong.
Only in the first and second cases do people usually place importance on their beliefs, and typically, only the first case leads people to harm others or themselves with no way to convince them to stop.
load more comments
(5 replies)
The difference between a belief and a theory is no one was ever burned at the stake disagreeing about a theory.
To some people it is.
So you stand for nothing? You've no values? I mean, I guess one doesn't need to have an ideology to be a hedonistic, consumerist pig, lol, it would get in the way!
Please, go on. You seem to be having a perfectly nice conversation with yourself here.
load more comments
(3 replies)
This asshole thinks that religions and beliefs stop people from being hedonistic, consumerist pigs. lololololol.
You brought religion into this, and your sophist insults.
Sounds like someone has a belief and is upset it's being exposed.
load more comments
(1 replies)
How do you think you pass over riches, drugs, sex, etc that you can easily acquire one way or another? You don't cheat on your wife because of your beliefs, you don't do coke because of your beliefs, you don't undercut your employees because of your beliefs, etc etc. There literally isn't any other way to curtail your hedonistic impulses (and other impulses, ofc) but to BELIEVE in something, a sentence or a group of sentences that resound within you at least, that tells you "no, it's okay, I can hold it in cause if not I'll regret it later". It's either that or, idk, locking yourself up in a room? 😅
I dunno, I'd say people do things like coke, cheat, etc, because of beliefs.
They have a belief that "it doesn't matter".
But yea, our beliefs, our paradigms, are what help us be better people to each other.
Hell, science is founded on the belief that the universe is rational, that "God does not play dice with the universe".
Studying quantum mechanics makes me wonder otherwise. Nothing about it is rational. Not to say I don't operate on a day-to-day basis that the underlying framework makes sense, what other choice do we have?
If we manage to understand pretty much everything about the universe above the quantum level, I'd consider that a great success for some bipedal primates on the 3rd rock from the Sun, looool. 😁
load more comments
(1 replies)
load more comments
(4 replies)
Because everything we can say about reality is through the human perspective and the construct of language. We believe that this can yield us truths. But its just a belief. Our human-ness might just as well blind us to what is actually true. And as such, most of everything we think we know is based on belief. There is no escaping this problem.
Ahh, now that's an interesting idea. Beliefs are important because they are communicable. So belief gains weight from its social significance. As society is powerful then so are beliefs.
So a man outside society, a hermit, might find his beliefs falling away.
Yes. And also explains why worldviews are so different between cultural, linguistical and geographically different groups of people.
Even though we're becoming more and more unified, through the internet, through logic systems like maths or science in general. This is not to be mistaken for truth. Western scientific ideology specifically has as unspoken 'truth' that when ideas 'win', they are more valuable. While English, our logical rules, our ideologies are winning not because they are true but because they are believed more, or over, other languages, logic systems and ideologies.
Ofcourse these systems of beliefs create opportunities and knowledge for people. Don't mistake my dismissal of truth for disaproval.
People do that. Like kids talking about their favorite baseball team. The same focus on things that move them to the core, while having no effect on to their life apart the place they willingly give them.