The Truth About Beliefs

Every belief is held within a network of beliefs. There’s no such thing as a separate and individual belief. They all are networked. That would give them meaning and significance, and verifies their truthfulness.

Now because every belief is held within a network of beliefs, it means that everybody looks at different things from a different perspective. There may be more than one right perspective. Inside the house the door may be red, outside the house the door may be blue. Both could be true.

Beliefs become dogmatic only when they’re held exclusively. That is only when one particular perspective is held to be the only right perspective. The door to the house is blue and only blue. Yet from another perspective, inside the house, the person knows that this view is wrong. But they may also think that the door to the house is red and only red. Again, each have only a limited perspective.

And because perspectives are universally different for every single person, every single person may have an aspect of reality. That doesn’t mean that truth and falsehood do not have meaning, it just means that they do not have universal and exclusive jurisdiction.

The key is not to give up on truth, but to give up on certainty. And that’s a world of difference between these two. Letting go of truth is not a good idea. Letting go certainty is.