This is a great question with multiple answers since the reason for our beliefs determines our mindset, our view of the world, what we consider as true, and ultimately, our reality.
There is nothing more personal than belief since it is altogether determined by a combination of cultural and societal Influences, personal values and ethics, personal experiences, family and upbringing, peer influence, religion and spirituality, psychological factors, education and learning, critical thinking and rationality, emotional needs, psychological factors, and of course, the big one: media and information sources. All those factors explain why the reasons for beliefs are complex, deeply rooted, and difficult to change once acquired.
Of course, in a perfect world, anybody should be able to believe whatever they want as long as they do not try to force their own beliefs on others. So, who cares if someone believes that the Earth is flat or that fairies are real as long as they don’t blow up something to prove their point? However, in the real world, things are very different, and beliefs, especially when forced on others, could have dramatic consequences for the people subjected to them. In that department, religion has done more than its share of molding societies into beliefs geared at preserving privileges, impeding knowledge, controlling the mind, and enshrining the patriarchal dominance of men over women.
If today, more than 2.5 billion women and girls across 155 countries still face discriminating laws based on religious beliefs, mostly in Muslim countries, it is easy to forget that for millennia, Christianity had done just the same. Is it because the Church never got over the claim that Mary Magdalene was the first person to whom Jesus appeared after his Resurrection, as well as being the one Jesus loved the most over the Apostles, that they had to brand her a prostitute? Let us also not forget the Original Sin, for which women are still paying the price. But thank God if today in America, where women have far more equal rights than in most countries, we still can make jokes saying that:
If the Israelites had given more liberties to their women to speak, they would have asked someone for directions instead of wandering in the desert for forty years.
But let’s not be complacent. Religious beliefs in the U.S. are on a warpath to revert hard-won civil rights for women. No doubt that the newly enacted anti-abortion laws in many States will have a significant impact on the voting preferences of many women.
Beliefs are also well at work in America, where there is not a single school board under siege from vocal parents who even use death threats to voice their opposition to the teaching of certain parts of our history, critical race theory, transgender issues, The Theory of Evolution, etc. And as always, politics are also starting to enter the fray, turning local school boards into ground zero of political discourse.
Beliefs have not only been a big impediment to the spreading of knowledge and progress, but have also been an active contributor to the eradication of ancient knowledge and know-how accumulated over centuries of human evolution. Indeed, if we were hard-pressed to choose among the many examples of ancient knowledge destroyed by the belief of intellectual and cultural superiority, there is at least one that still affects us today: the knowledge of medicinal plants. If beliefs of intellectual superiority had not eradicated thousands of years of practical knowledge, Big Pharma would not desperately be on the lookout for the next cure among plants, which would make them billions at little cost. How many thousands of women with knowledge of plants were burned at the stake as witches because they could cure better than traditional medicine could kill? The Americas had extensive knowledge of medicinal plants until the Spaniards made a bonfire of Aztec and Mayan Codices containing centuries of information about their history, science, and beliefs. If we are rediscovering the power of plants today, it is mainly because the Far East has been able to perverse traditional medical knowledge out of the reach of Christian missionaries.
But again, why talk about beliefs in a book that deals with the fall of America? The reason is in the close proximity of belief with faith. What they both have in common is that neither one requires any proof to be believed, which, when used in politics, has the power to move mountains or bring down the most powerful country on Earth.
Like two failed impeachments, the January 6th, 2021, Committee Report on the Capitol insurrection and four indictments for attempting to overturn voting results precisely demonstrate that nothing will convince Trump’s supporters that he did anything wrong. That is what he keeps telling them, and this is what they believe. In all cases, there is no absence of proof that makes up their beliefs; it is just irrational blind faith in their leader, no matter what. In some respect, this is similar to cult members who, as proof of faith in their leader, commit collective suicide on the promise of meeting Jesus or being picked up by a UFO before Armageddon. After all, this kind of faith is well documented, especially after WWII, when thousands of ordinary German citizens committed suicide rather than live in a world without their Fuhrer. For the others, it took seeing their cities reduced to rumbles, atrocities committed in deportation camps, and less than human soldiers (Russians) take their capital to start doubting that they may not be the master race after all. His is the same kind of blind faith that leads a terrorist to blow himself up to kill unbelievers with the promise to be met in Paradise by 72 virgins.
It remains to be seen if Trump’s unconditional supporters will commit collective suicide if their Messiah ends up the rest of his life in the slammer.
EXCERPT FROM “The Second Coming Of Trump The First” https://www.trumpthe1st.com/
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