gloggawogga
Bluelighter
To me, beliefs aren't what is important. What is important to me is choices and actions. Now choices need to be aware, but beliefs aren't necessarily a way to be aware.
In fact, beliefs are more or less a cheap cognitive shortcut for filtering and generalizing experience. For example, suppose I meet some new person, who is of a certain gender, is dressed a certain way, talks a certain way, is of a certain race, etc. etc. Now in my mind I have all these past experiences with people of that gender, people who talk that way, people dressed in that way, and people of that race, etc. etc. What am I doing? Forming stereotypes? Then I'm just seeing the person in front of me through my prejudices, instead of experiencing that person for who that person is. Thats what beliefs can do.
And the worst beliefs are the ones that I like. You know, the ones that fill me with faith, happiness, self esteem, joy, etc. Why are they the worst beliefs? Becuase they're addictive. Because I want to keep believing them. So when new experience comes in that contradicts these beliefs, well, I just have to rationalize that new experience in a way that fits into my beliefs. So awareness gets filtered, blinded by belief. And blind awareness leads to blind choice.
So looking at it that way your question "what is my favorite belief" amounts to "what belief do I like the most" and since the beliefs I like the most are the ones that blind me the most, your question amounts to "what belief blinds me the most", or perhaps "what is your favorite colour blindfold"? And the answer to me is that a blindfold is a blindfold. They're all the same
In fact, beliefs are more or less a cheap cognitive shortcut for filtering and generalizing experience. For example, suppose I meet some new person, who is of a certain gender, is dressed a certain way, talks a certain way, is of a certain race, etc. etc. Now in my mind I have all these past experiences with people of that gender, people who talk that way, people dressed in that way, and people of that race, etc. etc. What am I doing? Forming stereotypes? Then I'm just seeing the person in front of me through my prejudices, instead of experiencing that person for who that person is. Thats what beliefs can do.
And the worst beliefs are the ones that I like. You know, the ones that fill me with faith, happiness, self esteem, joy, etc. Why are they the worst beliefs? Becuase they're addictive. Because I want to keep believing them. So when new experience comes in that contradicts these beliefs, well, I just have to rationalize that new experience in a way that fits into my beliefs. So awareness gets filtered, blinded by belief. And blind awareness leads to blind choice.
So looking at it that way your question "what is my favorite belief" amounts to "what belief do I like the most" and since the beliefs I like the most are the ones that blind me the most, your question amounts to "what belief blinds me the most", or perhaps "what is your favorite colour blindfold"? And the answer to me is that a blindfold is a blindfold. They're all the same
I'm not just making this up, this is what I truly believe. Regardless of whether a God, bunch of lucky chemical reactions, or the fate of a pre-ordained but meaningless explosion at the beggining of what we call time, the complete individualality that we all possess through both our physical and mental evolution allows us to create whatever meaning we want for ourselves. The concepts of a God, of fate, of chance and of absolute truth's are irrelevant if we do in fact possess this individuality. And while I'll admit that its possible we are all simply the dream of one singular conciousness, this would only be relevant to that consciousness, as a God's existance would only be relevant to that God and fate's existance would only be relevant to it's initial starting point. To the human consciousness, or at least to myself, anything but it's (my) own existance is not nessecary to be interacted with, enjoyed, experienced, and grown/evolved from.