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Belief
Belief is
a
marvelous
spiritual-moral
means
with which mankind has only a passing acquaintance. Belief has
brought far reaching positive results in aiding humanity to
achieve Good, but also has also been an enormously destructive
force, aiding humanity to achieve Evil. The deeper we
delve into the topic, the more we will sense its power.
People
tend to accept things through belief.
This is apparent in
everyday life, and many people run their lives on this basis.
This tendency or weakness are among the causes of people's
acquisition of false information, inviting their fellow man to
abuse this marvelous force. Superstitions, prejudices, certain
social and personal customs and all their consequences are
usually a product of this impressive force.
In
summary- Belief is one of the most basic and impressive
spiritual tools. Its involvement in people's daily life is far
greater than most of as conceive. We will attempt to elucidate
these decisive declarations.
What is
belief
Webster's
dictionary and the Encyclopedia Britannica define belief as a
force, bringing a person to accept that some thing is truth
without having proof. Yet it is also a special
meditative state. We will refer to this state as the "state
of belief".
Specifically, we are referring to accepting truth from an
"authoritative" source. The source may be, for example: a
parent, teacher, doctor, friend, leader, king, religion, law or
God Himself. If you believe in this source, you generally
believe in the content he provides you, regardless of whether it
is actually true or not. In certain circumstances, almost any
being may represent an authoritative source in his colleague's
eyes.
‘Authorizing’ a source
People do
not accept information from just any source and are even less
inclined to accept information as being true without suitably
verifying its validity. In order for a person to unquestioningly
accept information, he must "believe" in its source, he must
grant the source with the authority of being a "reliable
source". Only then will he allow himself to enter the "state of
belief" and accept information or be encouraged to act in some
way. We provide some sources with an automatic status of
authority, while others have to "prove" their reliability.
Sources that are automatically granted such a status usually
include: A parent, doctor, teacher, leader, religion, law, God.
It is
customary to grant this status of authority to those we
recognize as being genuine friends. From such authorized
sources, often stems the abuse of this power. The ease with
which we bestow sources with authority is proportionate to the
ease with which this position of authority is abused.
Accepting something as true by means of belief.
Accepting information as representing the truth. With this
type of acceptance, man's mind receives a substantial quantity
of information in addition to that achieved by his senses and
stored in his brain. This additional information assists and
even enables man to function and develop in a more natural way.
It can therefore be stated that without it, man may experience a
significant slowdown in functioning and development.
Accepting encouragement or persuasion as representing the truth.
Among the many aspects of this topic, it will be noted that when
a person accepts that he can achieve a specific aim, his
previous perception is replaced with an improved one, leading to
his success.
It may
be said that acquiring the ability to succeed resides in
believing that success is possible. It is not enough to
simply have a specific wish, a desire to fulfill it and the
required knowledge. You have to believe that you will succeed in
your quest in order for your mind to act (within certain limits)
towards achieving this goal. The requisite encouragement or
persuasion could come from yourself, from your fellow man or
from God Himself.
Brings a person to accept something as true– regardless of
whether it is true or false. It is fair to say that faith is the
primary origin, which bestows man with false information.
Upon
man's accepting a thing as constituting truth, his mind will
creatively process the data regardless of its correctness, in
order to achieve the required aims. In light of this, the
readers can imagine the danger we face when we accept things on
the basis of belief alone.
Examples
illustrating the power of belief
We will
present examples of the power of belief, demonstrating its force
and the effects of encouragement and conviction, on the
functioning of an individual person and on society.
The
personal level
"I
believe that I'm healthy".
If this is declared in a state of belief, the mind accepts this
information to be true, and carries out, within certain limit whatever is required for actualizing this belief (If I am ill,
the mind will carry out, within limits, whatever is necessary
for my recovery).
A
similar thing occurs when I "believe" that another
wish I aim to realize is within my grasp. The mind will,
within limits, provide the forces and capacities
necessary for fulfilling my wish..
Extraordinary feats, accomplished by an individual under
hypnosis.
Once
he accepts as truth, “believes”, that the hypnotist’s
request is within his capabilities, and agrees to comply
with it, the subject's
spiritual
system will
provide within limits the forces and capacities
necessary, to
make its realization possible.
The placebo effect –
A patient recovers by
swallowing a sugar pill. When the patient accept as
true, his doctor's statement that the pill will cure him
after swallowing it, the patient's mind within certain
limits, acts to the realization of this belief.
The social level
In the Second World War,
we witnessed remarkable feats by Nazi youth, in their
quest for the "new world". This was after they believed,
namely "accepted" as truth, their leader's conclusion
that they can indeed actualize this ideal, and that this
ideal is beneficial to Germany and indeed, to the whole
world.
Currently,
we are all witnessing acts of suicide whose aim is
mass murder, by extremist elements in Arabic Muslim youth, who
accepted as true, that it is God's will to carry out these
actions and upon execution, they will achieve the highest degree
of holiness and will reach heaven where all their wishes will
come true
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As long as
people believe
in absurdities,
they will continue to commit atrocities.
Voltaire
Man is made by his belief. As he believes, so he is.
Wolfgang von Goethe
I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love
will have the final word in reality.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
I have known many good people who did not believe in God. But I have
never known a human being who was good who did not believe in people.
John Lovejoy Elliott
Anyone who doesn't take truth seriously in small
matters cannot be trusted in large ones either.
Albert Einstein
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