Everybody should believe in something;
I believe I’ll have another drink.
You are never dedicated to something
you have complete confidence in. No one
is fanatically shouting that the sun is
going to rise tomorrow. They know it’s
going to rise tomorrow. When people
are fanatically dedicated to political or
religious faiths or any other kinds of
dogmas or goals, it’s always because
these dogmas or goals are in doubt.
( Robert M. Pirsig,
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance )
關於「信念」，我們的認知是這樣的：
☆ 錯誤的「信念」有如錯誤的知識一樣，非常危險。
錯誤的「信念」會產生偏見和閉塞的腦袋，
只是聽取自己喜歡的資訊，所以容易產生錯誤的假設和揣測；
集體錯誤的「信念」會傾向於排斥理性和批判，傾向於保守，
傾向於用人數和情緒來決定真理，傾向於短期的利益，
傾向於互相保護，蠢蠢相衛，重視面子，傾向於找代罪羔羊。
The Spanish Inquisition, the prosecution
and burning of heretics and “witches”,
the relations between nations leading up to
the First and Second World Wars,
Communism throughout its history, the “Cold War”,
McCarthyism in America in the 1950s,
prolonged violent conflict in the Middle East
are all painful episodes in human history
dominated by extreme collective paranoia.
( Eckhart Tolle,
A new earth awakening to your life’s purpose, p.120 )
☆ 對某事物的「信念」並不能夠證明該事物的存在。
My interest in believing something
is not a proof of its existence.
( Voltaire, 1734 )
☆ 對某事物的「信念」往往阻礙我們繼續去思考。
Nothing is so firmly believed as what we least know.
( Michel de Montaigne )
Nothing binds you except your thoughts;
nothing limits you except your fear;
and nothing controls you except your beliefs.
( Marianne Williamson )
Do not flinch from experiences that might destroy
your beliefs. The thought you cannot think
controls you more than thoughts you speak aloud.
Submit yourself to ordeals and test yourself
in fire. Relinquish the emotion which rests upon
a mistaken belief, and seek to feel fully
that emotion which fits the facts.
( Eliezer Shlomo Yudkowsky )
When one person suffers from a delusion,
it is called insanity.
When many people suffer from a delusion,
it is called a Religion.
( Robert M. Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance )
例如「性善論」和「性惡論」都是用上了類推法 analogy，
所以只能夠是「信念」。
人性有善有惡，既有先天的因素，亦有後天的影響，
人性的善惡，既是百分比的問題，亦受所置身的環境影響。
這個說法才比較接近真相，才有可能成為「信仰」。
☆ 在某個時空被廣泛地接受的「信念」，不一定就是真理。
There were a lot of gods.
Gods always come in handy,
they justify almost anything.
( Margaret Atwood, The Blind Assassin )
「信念」的用途亦是「信念」的弱點，大致上有五個：
1. 節省一般人思考力弱和懶於思考的人在思考方面的辛勞。
2. 給予不喜歡思考的人一個腦筋疏懶的藉口。
3. 能夠將某個「信念」的責任推卸給這個「信念」的創造者。
4. 只要有某一種「信念」的人可以聚集一起，
就可以使「信念」看起來極像「信仰」。
5. 團結所有擁有共同「信念」的人，以圖互相保護和安慰。
6. 可以用模糊的語言和文字來表達，所以有折衷和妥協的功能。
Human beings in societies have a tendency
to associate what is popular with what is right.
然而任何人往空氣裡找一把，
都可能找到十個八個各式各樣動聽的「信念」，
所以「信念」當然不能夠稱為「信仰」！
☆ 一群好人共同相信的「信念」，不一定是「真理」。
一般持有「信念」的人最大的陷阱，就是認為
1. 只要自己是一個好人，自己相信的就一定是「真理」，或者
2. 一群好人共同接受的「信念」就一定是「真理」。
3. 既然這群好人共同擁有了「真理」，
就不再需要重視任何對這個共同「信念」的批判和辯論。
4. 排斥和拒絕和非我族類的「信念」是合理的行為。
That one man or ten thousand or
ten million men find dogma acceptable
does not argue for its soundness.
( David Starr Jordan )
I listen to them freely and with all the respect
merited by their intelligence, their character,
their knowledge, reserving always
my incontestable right of criticism and censure.
( Mikhail Bakunin )
We are incredibly heedless in the formation of
our beliefs, but find ourselves filled with an
illicit passion for them when anyone proposes
to rob us of their companionship. It is obviously
not the ideas themselves that are dear to us,
but our self-esteem, which is threatened.
( James Harvey Robinson, The Mind in Making )
洗腦：你空虛嗎？小心邪教趁虛而入！
http://opinion.cw.com.tw/blog/profile/390/article/4957
根據聖經《創世記》第一章，起初，神創造天地。
然後，神創造天使，然後，神創造天使長，名為撒旦。
然後，神照著「我們」的形像，按著「我們」的樣式造人，
這些人有男有女，生殖能力非常強，能夠生養眾多，遍滿地面。
《創世記》第二章才說神到了第七日，
才用地上的塵土造了一個有靈的活人「亞當」。
《創世記》沒有說明神在「亞當」之前所造的人是否有靈。
Dave Allen on Religion
☆ 文明社會的「普世價值」，不一定是「真理」。
1. 虛偽一向是雅俗共賞的普世價值。
2. 消費主義是資本主義社會的普世價值。
3. 面具和角色扮演是人類在社會生存的必需品。
4. 資本主義社會鼓勵累積財富，不介意貧富懸殊。
5. 名氣、面子、輩份、金錢和權力都非常重要。
6. 聰明人應該只是在求偶和交配時愛人如己。
Something that seems phoney is never symphony.