What is Belief? Let's Talk About It

A few days ago I asked the question "What is belief?" and asked for some input on a definition we could settle on for the purposes of further discussion.

Since there was very little input on that post, I thought I'd share a little more about some of the learning I've done on this subject and ask for more input from you.

When I was a boy I was friends with two other boys. Their father had a CB radio and we used to love playing with it. I remember at one point, one of them told us their mom didn't believe in CB radios. I remember very vividly my dad's reaction when we told him about that. He said, "What do you mean she doesn't believe in them?" It was an interesting experience because I think we all knew what she meant, but it raised basic questions - what does it mean to believe something? or believe "in" something?

That was almost forty years ago and it's my earliest memory of thinking about those questions. Over the next decade, like most people my age at the time, I began to read and think a lot about related questions.

How does one "know" something?

How do we know what we know? Do we really know it?

How do I know I really believe something?

Do I really believe what I tell myself I believe?

How willing am I to change my beliefs?

Is it important - or even possible - to know if what I believe is true?

Let's talk about it.