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From: sarge@thirdi.UUCP (Sarge Gerbode)
Newsgroups: sci.philosophy.tech
Subject: Re: The nature of knowledge
Message-ID: <66@thirdi.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 23-Jul-87 00:06:23 EDT
Article-I.D.: thirdi.66
Posted: Thu Jul 23 00:06:23 1987
Date-Received: Sat, 25-Jul-87 04:28:59 EDT
References: <58@thirdi.UUCP> <2401@ihlpl.ATT.COM>
Reply-To: sarge@thirdi.UUCP (Sarge Gerbode)
Distribution: world
Organization: Institute for Research in Metapsychology
Lines: 24
Keywords: truth knowledge belief absolutes certainty
Summary: Believing is not illogical

In article <2401@ihlpl.ATT.COM> rsl@ihlpl.ATT.COM (Richard S. Latimer                         ) writes:
>If believing is an act of accepting as true without or in spite of
>evidence, then it is by its nature illogical....
>An interesting question (to me) is why does anyone choose to
>believe, since it is clearly illogical?  Any thought?

Believing is no more illogical than breathing or eating.  What can be illogical
are one's *reasons* for believing, but they need not be.

People choose to believe because life cannot be lived without believing.  For
instance, one cannot walk without believing that one can do so.  One cannot go
to work without believing that the workplace still exists and that one still
has a job.  Sometimes one's beliefs turn out to be wrong.  That is also part of
life, a part one tries to minimize.

One cannot stop believing; one can only improve one's *criteria* for belief.
-- 
"Absolute knowledge means never having to change your mind."

Sarge Gerbode
Institute for Research in Metapsychology
950 Guinda St.
Palo Alto, CA 94301
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