I have often thought of how I might react, if I were to experience something surprising. After all, everything we know, believe or feel is ultimately based on faith.
Even the mathematical statement 1+1=2 is based on faith. What is faith?
“Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”
May I suggest… “Ooh, neat!”
Well, that’s what I do, anyway. Unless the surprise involves getting my toe cut off or something.
I’m not sure I understand. I mean, about math, feelings, beliefs, and knowledge being based on faith.
Our system of math is our own invention; saying 1+1=2 isn’t a matter of faith but rather a simple definition. We have defined the system to work that way, and the system has shown itself to be pretty useful, so we stick with that definition. We made it up, and we know it’s a fabrication, but it can be re-defined if it stops being useful. It’s not much different than an engine, a torch, or a computer program… it’s a tool, not a fundamental truth about existence.
What I feel is pretty much either self-defined (emotions, preferences), or a side effect of external factors (physical sensations). I’m not sure how faith is involved in deciding that I like cheese, or noticing that my toe hurts. If I begin to doubt that I like cheese, I can change my preference… and if I stop believing that my toe hurts, it’ll probably still wake me up in the middle of the night if it’s actually injured.
What I believe is based on what I’ve observed and what I’ve been taught, but it all carries the awareness that these beliefs might be false. I try to identify and get rid of the false beliefs, but it’s pretty time-consuming to do.
I don’t claim to know anything in particular about the universe, at least not using that term. But if I did, my knowledge would probably require some faith unless the knowledge is something I can define for myself. Like, I know, in an absolute sense, that I love my partner… but I can never know with absolute certainty that the theory of gravity is correct.
I might be using a different definition, though the above quote isn’t too far from what I had in mind. Does that mean that faith is basically belief without evidence, or sometimes even belief despite contrary evidence?
That brings to mind another quote… “Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn’t go away.”
In reality though, that’s not how I usually react. Mostly I just get confused, try to come up with explanations for what I saw, and either learn something or fail. With any luck, after failing, I then notice my confusion and start re-examining my beliefs to try to figure out which one is false. Or, at the very least, file the surprise under a header of “stuff I can’t explain yet” so I can get back to it later, and adjust downward the confidence of any beliefs likely to be related.
For me, faith is something different, as in the expression “to take a leap of faith”. It is not born of belief or knowledge. Faith requires trust in the absence of beliefs and knowledge.
I think you pretty much get what I was trying to say.
When you mentioned surprises, I thought you were referring to outcomes that were not expected in a controlled experiment. From babies onward, all of us experiment and use the results to mature. Learning to walk, talk, play the piano is a series of IF-THEN experiments. All of our knowledge, beliefs and feelings are a result of all these experiments as we grow. The surprise that I referred to would be something so huge as to put a lot of the conclusions from past experiments in doubt… What could do that? Discovering that cats are really extraterrestrials. That would pretty much do it. I wonder how I would react to something like that. Our perception of reality, what ever that may be, is formed from our senses and intellect. But without the senses, there would be no intellect. We know our senses are limited, therefore how trustworthy is our intellect? There is so much that we accept as true without proof, and upon that we base everything else. That means much of what we know, believe or feel is an extrapolation of a few core “truths” What if one of those is removed? How would I react, I ask myself.
Does anybody really know what time it is?
To be honest, the earlier post about duck tape vs duct tape was sufficient to get rid of one of my false beliefs. It wasn’t exactly mind-blowing, but it did reveal to me that I had an unexamined and false belief. I had always heard that “duck” tape was just a cute name (or brand name) for duct tape, and that it was originally used for, like, ducts. But I never bothered to look it up, and was pleasantly surprised to learn that what I had heard was wrong.
Did you ever see the movie The Cat From Outer Space? I loved that movie when I was little.
It helps to have a world view based on uncertainty instead of knowledge. Even (or especially) if it’s based on qualified uncertainty, having some ideas which are more uncertain than others. Instead of accepting things as true, you can consider them to be merely very likely… and then it’s easier to let go of an idea when observing something which doesn’t fit.
No, but I know what time it’ll be at noon tomorrow.
“Everybody's got to believe in something. I believe I'll have another beer.”
W. C. Fields
kNOwing is beLIEving !
Knowledge is a term that is much abused. When pushed, people tend to equate knowledge with certainty. This is a mistake.
Your beliefs and your knowledge serve separate needs. What’s better, veins or arteries? The question is flawed.
What about capillaries? They need some love too! 
Not hardly…If you don’t know anything about it, it is the same as if the thing never existed, as far as you are concerned, at that moment.
You can believe in something you have never seen, but take the experiences of others as a guide; like Germany is somewhere across the Atlantic Ocean, accounts of the Second World War, the fact that most poisons will kill you, the Earth is flat, etc., etc.
But, you must be sure your source of information is credible and truthful, if your belief is to be well-founded, and lead to correct knowledge.
And…therein lies the difficulty. 
Choose your “experts” carefully!
Did the men and women who built the Empire State Building know it could be done? Did Steve Jobs know he could create something that would change the world? Did Old-Lumens know he could mod Maglites? No, but they believed.
For every successful believer there are ten that fail. Are the unsuccessful believers less important than the successful one? I say no.
As for the other 89 percent, well, they are the knowers.
I still do not know which is better.
That’s changing the definition a little, but I’ll bite. They knew they could not put a large thing on a small thing and expect it to stand. Speaking of Standing, they Knew from that Pisa, Italy debacle to NOT put things on a soft foundation, so they found themselves a big, hard rock. IOW, they knew very well how to build buildings. Building a famous one is no different than any other, barring hype.
Actually (as a pre-Mac Apple fan and factory-certified Apple Mechanic), no he did not. That’s why he teamed up with Steve Wozniak. Jobs’ beliefs may have pushed the issue, but The Woz had the knowledge to make the “miracles” happen. Jobs wasn’t even all that unique in his beliefs! He just got lucky to find one knowledgeable, similarly-motivated engineer with the same belief system and “the skills to pay the bills”.
I don’t know Old-Lumens, but I’d have to believe he took the time to acquire some knowledge before he started… And judging by his comments, I wholeheartedly believe he is well capable of acquiring more knowledge (and developing his own) as he goes along.
You do make an excellent point: Belief in yourself is absolutely necessary to push yourself to put in the work required to succeed in whatever you choose to do. Self-doubt has killed more brilliant ideas than all the false beliefs and incorrect “knowledge” ever did. But, as “Progressive Socialism” is proving, it still won’t end well if you don’t know what you’re doing!
Thanks for contributing!
Dim
I know this:
The following sentence is TRUE.
The preceding sentence was FALSE.
If I asked the other tribesman for directions, what would HE say?
You bring up another Good Question:
Is it possible to be completely uncertain?
Yep .
Ever been married ?
So how do you know whom to trust?
Sure. When you reach for something, for example, you don’t doubt the existence of your hand, or your self, or the object that you are reaching for. You could, at this point, argue that it is possible to be uncertain of these things - but that is not the same as actually being uncertain.
There are also, of course, tautologies.
What we must not do is equate knowledge with certainty.
You’re right, but when Chloe clarified that there is a difference between belief and faith, my mind drifted this direction.
I probably could have come up with better examples to make a point. Although any example could be argued that they built upon previous accomplishments and failures of others.
Also, when I said that the unsuccessful believers were as important as the successful ones, I meant that they are equally important to the process of progress. I definitely believe in “to the victor go the spoils”.
One doesn’t, or it wouldn’t be a leap of faith.
People can make the worst out of the best with a little twisting around. If you want to look at it that way, at the heart of knowing is NO WING, you can’t fly based on what you know, but to believe is to achieve.