Are Beliefs Actually Believed by the Believer?

Everyone has diverse ideas on numerous ideas and topics. But do people really believe what they think they do? Do people feel that something is true when it may not be? I feel that no matter what someone sees or hears they cannot know for sure it is real. I feel that some things have a higher probability of being real while others are more uncertain. Directly verifiable qualities fall in the greater than 99 percent likely category. They are qualities that appear real, but there is no definite way to prove them. It could always just be a dream, the 1%. Indirectly qualities are less likely, but still is easily over 50 percent likely to be real. Moving on, anything that is not verifiable is even less likely to be real. Although people may feel they believe something is real (even though it most likely is) they should keep an open mind on the fact that it may not be true.

Directly verifiable qualities, including sights and sounds, are nearly always a true occurrence. For example, if someone sees a dog running through a park they can directly verify that the dog is taking a stroll through the park. Although they can verify the dogs existence does not mean that it is real. According to the viewers perspective, the dog is there. But the dog could be an illusion of some sort. For example, the dog running through the park could be a part a dream that is so vivid it seems real. These dreams or illusions are what could fall into the category of less than one percent of all cases that people presume to be real.

In direct verification is a little less probable. It has to do with ideas and events that you hear through people or documents. Also the further back you go in history the less reliable the “thing” is. For example, if someone tells you about the civil war and you read the same thing in documents from during this time period, this is an example of indirect verification. The chances of it being true are slightly slimmer than those of direct verification. The true facts could have easily been lost in the shuffle or could have easily been exaggerated at the point when it was written down or even when the stories were told between person and person. Also the idea of it being a dream could be included in the indirect verification. There is no definite way of knowing that anything is real.

Similar to Russell I feel that you should not believe everything you see or hear. You can believe stuff, but must have an open mind as there is no single way to absolutely prove something’s existence. Beliefs are ideas that help people get through the day. I am not saying that people should not believe in anything, just that they need to prepare themselves for the one percent of the time that something that they truly believe does not hold true. So whether or not something is proven to be directly verifiable or indirectly verifiable, one must be able to not let their beliefs on something limit their imagination. Basically, I feel that you can believe anything you want no matter if it is concrete or not, one just must be able to look at possibilities they thought were not possible.