Belief

A new report shows that over 80% of American ‘believe’ in climate change.

The only thing that I ‘believe’ in is that other people believe in things.

The problem with belief is that it requires all issues to be reduced to binary choices, and that a mental coin is tossed as to whether one is on that side of an issue, or this.

Why not just assign a probability based on the evidence, do a risk and return analysis and then decide on an action plan, which can be modified as new evidence comes to light?

Of course the answer is twofold:

1. At an individual level this requires a practised and rigourous mind – lazy is easier, and

2. Socially, it is actually easier to count up for the beliefs, the for’s and against’s, than it is to enter into a debate based on probabilities.

Maybe the outcome is the same. Maybe not. But why have we bothered to develop intelligence if we don’t use it?