Belief is an extremely important concept to understand in Antelism. Before going over Belief it is important to understand an important concept in Antelism known as Confidence.
Confidence is the emotion one exhibits that tells them that something is a “yes” or “no” emotion. This is explained in great detail in the Binary Emotion Hypothesis. The short version is that people can simplify emotions to positive and negative emotions for the sake of analysis. This binary can be viewed as “Positive vs Negative” or “Yes vs No” or any other word. Antelism believes that the dictionary and our vocabulary is too limited to describe everything properly, so we have to rely on simple pre-existing words.
Belief is therefore the emotion of an individual having Confidence in something being Truth. Belief and Truth are not the same thing, Belief only exists as a concept in human behavior and other forms of life. Truth exists and will always exist whether or not there are people are life in the universe, however Belief only exists amongst individuals and thus there would be no Beliefs if there was no Life.
(Note: Concepts and Ideas and Thoughts are also Truth, so although individual “physical” beliefs (physical thoughts of beliefs) don’t exist in a lifeless universe, the concept of Belief still exists as an Object of Truth but there is just no one to actually have it, it is not Pure Truth but rather Belief is Design)
(For example, making painting with a unique composition. If it is never painted then it does not exist and it is not Pure Truth. However the painting CAN be painted, nothing in the universe physically stops or prevents that composition from existing. So it exists as “Potential Truth” (A Truth that can exist but currently does not) instead of as Pure Truth or Existing Truth (Existing Truth is Pure Truth + Nature and Design).
Belief is an individual having Confidence (“Yes Emotion”) in a specific Thing (Object, Idea) being True. In Antelism we focus a lot on the idea of Belief because we focus on the idea of Truth. Antelism has many standards that must be met before one is willing to place Belief in Something. Depending on the importance of that individual Thing, Antelism states that there are healthy and unhealthy levels of Belief that you are allowed to place depending on the Thing’s importance.
For example, doing a dangerous action that can risk your life or the lives of other people will have a higher standard that must be met for Belief because of the risk to GOAM. However something small like making a decision on which path in the park you’d like to take a walk on and believing which path you think will make you happier has a less strict standard.
It is important to note that there are different levels of Confidence (levels of “Yes” emotion) with regards to the idea of belief. Belief is Spectrum based (Refer to Essay on Spectrum Theory) because Confidence (Yes Emotion) from which Belief is derived from is also Spectrum based. That means there are different levels of Confidence you can have in a Belief.
The Antelist view of Belief is to help people achieve a high level of concurrence with one’s Beliefs and with Truth. One believing that apples (the fruit) come in blue and purple colors is believing in something False (not Truth) and Antelist morality therefore views that as a moral error. However the degree of moral error is relative depending on many factors. This will be talked about in a different chapter (The Importance of Beliefs)
Another concept in Antelism regarding Belief is that we view that a Belief is something that an individual person chooses to have instead of something that they cannot control. One can be manipulated and psychologically conditioned into Beliefs, whether through direct or indirect Propaganda (Propaganda means Marketing that is a Lie), however it is still the individual at the end of the day who chooses their Belief. This is a hard concept to contextualize because it is likely that you the reader have encountered someone who believes something and nothing can change that belief. It appears on the outside that the person has animalistic behavior (pure impulse behavior without emotional calmness and reasoning) and that the person is incapable of changing their Belief, but Antelism views it differently, Antelism views beliefs as a choice and that the choice is often influenced by an individual’s emotions rather than a desire to achieve a view that is closer to Truth. It is often viewed in Antelism that people are trained into these forms of thinking that prevent them from adjusting their views and beliefs in accordance with Truth.
A classic example that is easy to spot is the culture of the debate. A debate is a fight between two opposing sides trying to justify one belief over another belief. This situation puts people into a psychological state in which they are doubling down and tripling down on the Confidence (Positive Emotion / Yes Emotion) of their Belief. Although the debate was first created as a mechanism of people to reach closer to the Truth, the current reality is that the debate as we know it today has led to quite the opposite.
Another concept in Antelism is that Belief, depending on context, can be an important indicator of one’s mental condition. Someone who constantly refuses to change their beliefs in spite of clear evidence. These people are interesting, because many of these people can align their beliefs with Truth quite often, in fact, most people can achieve pretty positive alignment with Truth and Belief. The example of water boiling at a specific temperature, we hold that Belief because of the Evidence, and most people hold that Belief. However there are people who believe the world is flat, and despite the evidence against that statement, they refuse to give up on the notion and continue to hold onto the belief, and they CHOOSE to hold onto the Belief that the earth is flat. These people could have their beliefs aligned with Truth on other categories of their lives but for one reason or another they faulted on one issue.
The reason for this is because Truth is often generated and reinforced by Emotion. Emotion is covered in the Antelist model of Human Nature, but in short, one’s Emotion can have their belief reinforced regardless of new evidence coming in. The reason for this, according to Antelism, is that the people choose to have the belief rather than accept a new one. They choose to hold on instead of opening their mind to a new idea. Their confidence exists despite not humbling themselves on the attributes of Truth and Belief.
The dangers of Belief, specifically Incorrect Beliefs (False Beliefs) (Beliefs that are opposite or opposed to Truth) are clearly evident. One believing that eating a specific chemical will help them but in reality that specific chemical is a poison, then that person, through their False Belief, are poisoning themselves, even though they Believe they are helping themselves. Another clear example is the Belief in ideologies and thoughts that lead to the pain and suffering of others, with the most well known modern example being Hitler and his belief that the world requires war and genocide in order to create a better society. That ideology, that he believed was true, ended up hurting and killing himself as well as the harm and death of millions of people.
Thus, the study of Belief and understanding of Belief is extremely important in Antelism. If we do not understand how one believes then we cannot shape their beliefs to better align with Truth.
In conclusion, Belief is the Emotion of Confidence in a Thing being True. It has nothing to do with whether that Thing is actually True or not, it is just an individual’s own emotion telling them whether it is or not. Antelism believes in trying to align individual beliefs with Truth as much as we reasonably can. A false belief by itself is viewed as a negative thing however the degree on falsehood will determine whether that thought is dangerous or not and the degree in which one remains stubborn on false beliefs will determine whether they are fit for the Antelist movement.