Are your beliefs rational?

[Chriliman]

Is it rational to believe something that can't be demonstrated or known?

Reason I ask is because I've come accross multiple people who think it's rational to believe all beings will cease to exist after death, when this 'truth' can't be demonstrated or known.

Isn't it rational to verify, or at least be able to verify in the future, that your beliefs are true?

Thoughts?

 

[Bluerose31]

Is it rational to believe something that can't be demonstrated or known?

Reason I ask is because I've come accross multiple people who think it's rational to believe all beings will cease to exist after death, when this 'truth' can't be demonstrated or known.

Isn't it rational to verify, or at least be able to verify in the future, that your beliefs are true?

Thoughts?

I believe in a heaven. I think that is where we go after we die.

 

[bhsmte]

Is it rational to believe something that can't be demonstrated or known?

Reason I ask is because I've come accross multiple people who think it's rational to believe all beings will cease to exist after death, when this 'truth' can't be demonstrated or known.

Isn't it rational to verify, or at least be able to verify in the future, that your beliefs are true?

Thoughts?

Would be curious to see how you define rational. With that said, i believe it is rational to accept things that can be verified with reality. With that said, i wouldnt say it is irrational to believe in things that can not be verified, but it would bs irrational for someone to claim they have verifiable evidence to believe something, when this evidence can not be demonstrated. When this happens, personal psychological need, is taking priority over being rational.

 

[Saint Beloved]

Is it rational to believe something that can't be demonstrated or known?

Reason I ask is because I've come accross multiple people who think it's rational to believe all beings will cease to exist after death, when this 'truth' can't be demonstrated or known.

Isn't it rational to verify, or at least be able to verify in the future, that your beliefs are true?

Thoughts?

I think human's think too much.

 

[bhsmte]

I think human's think too much.

Some do and some dont think enough.

 

[Saint Beloved]

Some do and some dont think enough.

Truth!

 

[Sanoy]

It is rational to believe something that cannot be demonstrated. For example: The "God Particle", the Higgs Boson was mathematically determined to exist before it was ever demonstrated to exist.

When it comes to determining the best explanation for something that cannot be known it is best to use abductive reasoning. Appeal to the best explanation.

Is there any reason to believe that all that we are is material that ends in the grave? Certainly not. For one our body sheds all of it's cells every 7 years, meaning that if all we are is our material body then no one is older than 7 years or is guilty of crimes after 7 years. People are also irreducible. Losing half your brain doesn't make you half a person. [This does not apply to the brain so it's false]

Another example is that there is no evolutionary theory that fully explains the emergence of cognition in free will beings. If you don't know where it came from you don't know where it goes when you die. There is also no material correlation to the "Qualia" that is experienced in consciousness.

 

[archer75]

Reason isn't the only function of the mind.

When reason leads you to an expectation of something that can't be tested / verified that is quite outside of human experience, you're either misusing reason or using a faculty other than reason and thinking it's reason.

 

[bhsmte]

Reason isn't the only function of the mind.

When reason leads you to an expectation of something that can't be tested / verified that is quite outside of human experience, you're either misusing reason or using a faculty other than reason and thinking's it's reason.

Correct. And we reason with ourselves all the time, based on our psychological need. If one really needs to believe something, the mind will work overtime to reason this belief into its own reality.

 

[Nick714]

Is it rational to believe something that can't be demonstrated or known?

Reason I ask is because I've come accross multiple people who think it's rational to believe all beings will cease to exist after death, when this 'truth' can't be demonstrated or known.

Isn't it rational to verify, or at least be able to verify in the future, that your beliefs are true?

Thoughts?

i wouldnt always take that aproach because on the flip side. you would also need to prove to that person that there is life after death with more than words. and that is beyond our power. but what we can do is find the truth and the truth points to Jesus and its our faith that we beleive what he says untill we understand it fully. but untill then we can point others back to the truth with signs and wonders. as he commanded us, heal the sick, raise the dead and cast out demons in Jesus name. another verse in Corinthians says that we already have the gift but we need to fan it into flame by laying on hands.

 

[PollyJetix]

Is it rational to believe something that can't be demonstrated or known?

Reason I ask is because I've come accross multiple people who think it's rational to believe all beings will cease to exist after death, when this 'truth' can't be demonstrated or known.

Isn't it rational to verify, or at least be able to verify in the future, that your beliefs are true?

Thoughts?

Dependence on rationality is dependence on your own mind to reason.
This means you are your own god.
Anything higher than humanity cannot be rational to humans.

http://christianfunnypictures.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/athfleaist-2Bconvention.jpg

 

[Monna]

Reason I ask is because I've come accross multiple people who think it's rational to believe all beings will cease to exist after death, when this 'truth' can't be demonstrated or known.

If all beings cease to exist after death then obviously these beings will not be able to know it when they die.

If beings continue to exist after death this will be demonstrated and known on a one by one basis. Each of us will know it when we die. I choose to believe it. I trust in God that it will be confirmed when he says "It's time!"

Belief is very much a matter of choice. There are lots of people who believe things that are demonstrably untrue. They choose not to believe the evidence. Others find rationalisations to convince themselve that what they (choose to) believe is true. We have our own criteria and "standards" by which we allow ourselves to be 'convinced.' Christians are no different.

Some people can rationalise for themselves that death is the end. Nothing continues beyond death. Others might use their reasoning skills to show that this belief is the utlimate cop-out - it relieves us of any long term personal accountability for our lives here and now; it provides the basis for a totally self-centred and selfish life for as long as it lasts. Even if this self-centred life is philantropic.

What do you mean by "exist." A dead body exists. If cremated, the ashes continue to exist. From dust we came, to dust we return. The elements that make up our bodies will continue to exist. For most of us, memories of us will exist among people who know us and survive us. In today's world, most of us exist in numerous digital forms in numerous databases, and will do so for a long time after our bodies die. (I'm being a little extreme, I admit. I do think I know what you "mean.")

 

[ImAllLikeOkWaitWat]

If I did not think they were rational I would not believe in them.

 

[quatona]

Is it rational to believe something that can't be demonstrated or known?

Reason I ask is because I've come accross multiple people who think it's rational to believe all beings will cease to exist after death, when this 'truth' can't be demonstrated or known.

Isn't it rational to verify, or at least be able to verify in the future, that your beliefs are true?

Thoughts?

Usually, I wait until things are verified. So as soon as you can demonstrate that "beings exist after they are dead" (at this point I don´t even know what that might possibly mean), please notify me.

 

[ImAllLikeOkWaitWat]

Usually, I wait until things are verified.

The problem with that for you my friend, is by that time, its too late.

 

[Saint Beloved]

Is it rational to believe something that can't be demonstrated or known?

Reason I ask is because I've come accross multiple people who think it's rational to believe all beings will cease to exist after death, when this 'truth' can't be demonstrated or known.

Isn't it rational to verify, or at least be able to verify in the future, that your beliefs are true?

Thoughts?

I'm quite a literal person in my understanding of things so I run the risk of being more dogmatic than rational also parroting respected elders and not naturally thinking for myself, which I largely count as a blessing from God.

I think laziness plays a big part in the situation you're talking about, far easier to take someone's opinion as gospel than to read and check the gospel's first. Lots of unsound doctrine and beliefs about it's the sickness of the bed times complacency.

 

[Skreeper]

Is it rational to believe something that can't be demonstrated or known?

Reason I ask is because I've come accross multiple people who think it's rational to believe all beings will cease to exist after death, when this 'truth' can't be demonstrated or known.

Isn't it rational to verify, or at least be able to verify in the future, that your beliefs are true?

Thoughts?

The rational thing to do is to withhold belief until a claim has been demonstrated to be true. People claim that existence somehow continues after death. Without evidence or a demonstration I do not believe that this claim is true.

 

[ananda]

Is it rational to believe something that can't be demonstrated or known?

Reason I ask is because I've come accross multiple people who think it's rational to believe all beings will cease to exist after death, when this 'truth' can't be demonstrated or known.

Isn't it rational to verify, or at least be able to verify in the future, that your beliefs are true?

Thoughts?

Personal verification is very important in early Buddhism. Yes, the Lord Buddha spoke on many topics, even on things unobservable to most of us at this time, but none of it is meant to believed on blind faith. Instead, He merely provided a map of the Path ahead which we must walk and re-discover for ourselves.

Once, the Buddha was teaching a point of doctrine to his disciples, and then he asked his senior disciple, Ven. Sariputta, if he believed in what he was teaching. Ven. Sariputta replied "no" - he didn't believe yet, because he hadn't yet known the teaching for himself. The Buddha praised him.

 

[quatona]

The problem with that for you my friend, is by that time, its too late.

Too late for what?

 

[ImAllLikeOkWaitWat]

Too late for what?

To be saved.