Belief and Knowledge

People are not naturally skeptics, wondering if a single one of their beliefs can be reasonably preserved. They are dogmatists, angrily confident of maintaining them all.

We should be skeptics with regards to our beliefs, unless we have been privately convinced they are true and worth having.

The idea is not to have the courage of our convictions; it's to have the courage to challenge our convictions.

I've often said that believing in something, anything, is easy. It requires nothing but belief. If I were to believe that it will rain tomorrow, but all weather patterns and pressure systems say that it won't, then all I have is my belief. Only when tomorrow comes, and brings no rain, will I rationalize the event and justify my belief.

Though I may be proved wrong, my belief was correct.

Of course, that's not the way to a rational and objectively lived life. Yet people cling rather than prove; deny rather than become open; believe only rather than do the mental legwork to know.

What do you believe only? Do you have the courage to challenge it, or are you angrily confident?