<html><body>I like the way you seperated belief from Belief. I just wanted to add that there is one particular belief that we all subscribe to and it is the belief that we will still be alive tomorrow. Without that belief, society would likely break down completely......<BR>
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<BLOCKQUOTE style="PADDING-LEFT: 8px; MARGIN-LEFT: 8px; BORDER-LEFT: blue 2px solid" webmail="1">-------- Original Message --------<BR>Subject: Re: [ExI] Basis of Belief (Meta)<BR>From: "Lee Corbin" <lcorbin@rawbw.com><BR>Date: Wed, February 27, 2008 3:25 am<BR>To: "ExI chat list" <extropy-chat@lists.extropy.org>, "hkhenson"<BR><hkhenson@rogers.com><BR><BR>Keith writes<BR><BR><BR>> Why do people have beliefs, particularly religious beliefs at all?<BR><BR>"beliefs" with a small "b" include perceptions, sensations, 3D knowledge,<BR>appreciations of personality differences, recall of favors, what local<BR>landmarks there are, and so on and on. We've had them forever, and<BR>so do animals.<BR><BR>But you are talking about "Beliefs" with a capital "B". In his very nice<BR>book "Before the Dawn (Recovering the Lost History of our Ancestors)",<BR>author Nicolas Wade mentions the not-very-recent theory that religion<BR>evolved as a defense against lies. It started as a marker of who you<BR>could trust and who you could not. Obviously this fed into group <BR>loyalties, and the evolution of "us" vs. "them". <BR><BR>We might say, in the case of religion and nationality (of the "nationalism"<BR>variety) that these were developments that allowed for social cohesion<BR>to extend much further. That is, your "tribe" need no longer be restricted<BR>to just those who you had met.<BR><BR>Once in place, I will suggest, this evolved towards "us-them" in everything<BR>else. Not just Republicans vs. Democrats, for instance, but in everything <BR>imaginable. As a mathematical Platonist, I am tempted to look upon<BR>everything that the Formalists, or (shudder) the Intuitionists may have<BR>to say with great suspicion... :-)<BR><BR>BTW, it's particularly funny to me to hear people who suppose<BR>themselves to be paragons of utter rationality and logic deign to<BR>dismiss others as irrational. We all have "Beliefs" of one sort or<BR>another, even if they're based on nothing more profound than,<BR>for example, not wanting to be inconvenienced. Everyone here<BR>would be mightily inconvenienced, for example, if we had to<BR>learn that there was a divine order to the universe, or that the<BR>Trilateral Commission really does run everything.<BR><BR>> I think I know the answer, do you?<BR><BR>What?<BR><BR>Lee<BR><BR>_______________________________________________<BR>extropy-chat mailing list<BR><a onclick="Popup.composeWindow('pcompose.php?sendto=extropy-chat%40lists.extropy.org'); return false;" href="#Compose">extropy-chat<B></B>@lists.extropy.org</A><BR><A href="http://lists.extropy.org/mailman/listinfo.cgi/extropy-chat" target=_blank>http://lists.extropy.org/mailman/listinfo.cgi/extropy-chat</a><BR></BLOCKQUOTE></DIV></body></html>