|
All Ideas Are Believed Unequally
Not all ideas hold equal weight within the human mind. One is barely conscious of some ideas, while others preoccupy our thoughts and motivate our actions. In Empowerment’s idea model, belief in an idea is rated as a percentage, ranging from 0% (ignorance) to 50% (belief) to 100% or more (faith).
Each person believes in a number of different ideas to varying percentages depending on how convinced they are.
Is belief the right word for it?
Many things people think about are seemingly not beliefs but speculations or interests in things they do not consdier real. A belief is more that something is important than that something is true in the conventional sense. Reality by priority.
Deprecated
Modification: These are actually meta-ideas that can relate to all the others.
Truth Or Falsehood?
“While most peoples’ opinions change, the conviction of their correctness never does.”
—?
The danger of ideas is that what we believe may be false and what we don’t know may be true. Truth exists independent of what we think about it, but our grasp of it is imperfect.
Human intelligence and perception seems to drive us towards an ever improved understanding of the truth. But there is no gaurantee that the truth will win against falsehood.
Thus, if you believe in something, don’t count on its inherent truth to convince anyone. The truth you believe in needs your advocacy for it to prevail.
Temporary Shifts In Belief
Sometimes an experience or emotion will temporarily influence your beliefs. For example, feeling discouraged by criticism can make your beliefs shakier for a while.
Seeing All Sides
"He who knows only his own side of the case, knows little of that. His reasons may be good, and no one may have been able to refute them. But if he is equally unable to refute the reasons on the opposite side; if he does not so much as know what they are, he has no ground for preferring either opinion."
|
 |
|
DEGREES OF BELIEF %
DISBELIEF –100% to –1%
If you lose belief in an idea, you lose belief but you don’t go back to ignorance. More often you just gain a stronger counter idea against it.
IGNORANCE 0%
If you’ve never heard of it, how can you believe in it? Anyone who tries to share it with you will have to explain what it is first.
AWARENESS 1 % to 19%
You’re heard about it. You aren’t necessarily doing anything about it, but know what someone is talking about when they mention it. All it takes is a reason to be curious for you to be come interested.
INTEREST 20% to 39%
You’re curious to learn more about it and talk about it with others. If you knew more about it, you might become sympathetic to the idea.
UNDERSTANDING 40% to 49%
You understand the idea enough to see why people believe. You’re not sure about it yourself, but you can explain the basic premises.
BELIEF 50 to 79%
You’ve thought about it long enough and decided you believe it to be true. You self-identify as a believer and use it to evaluate new ideas.
CONVICTION 80 to 99%
You’re so convinced of the idea that it’s hard to see things any other way.You think about it often and it motivates your behavior.
FAITH 100 to 149%
You have unshakeable faith that can inspire belief in others. You are comitted to it as an important value worth sacrificing for.
FANATICISM 150% +
Any idea or person that disagrees with you must be incorrect. You would do almost anything for what you believe in.
|
|
