This was written December 5th, 2025
Beliefs
Beliefs, they tend to be a core identity of religion. In modern times, we’ve even started to consider Gods’ powers as being proportional to how much people believed in them, how much they are worshiped. Beyond that, some science now seems to indicate that belief itself can greatly influence one’s health. The placebo effect, the nocebo effect. Some things once generally considered harmful, such as stress, seem to only be harmful when we believe they are harmful. Those are clear indications of our own perception of reality shaping it, at a microscale.
Ancient people used to simply use belief implicitly through their own myths and religion, but there is legend of a tribe who realized the power of belief, and made it a core tenet of their society. Were they valid in such beliefs? Who knows, beliefs and their impact, even to this day, and difficult to measure. Which some believers suspect is in part because of the observer’s own belief biasing the results themselves, ironically. But what we do know is what remains of their legend.
As people of this ancient culture gradually came to see how their own beliefs were affecting them, they realized that they should start using them to their own advantage. But like with so many other cultures, it simply started with their religion. But how could this shape their religion? Well, it started with a precept about their afterlife. One of their own philosophers surmised that one’s afterlife is shaped by their own beliefs. Thus, if you believe in heaven, you might be faced with some heaven once you passed away. If you believed in a purgatory, you might have to visit those fiery depths to repent before being allowed into a heaven. If you believed in Heaven and Hell, and suspected you might not have led a just life, well then, clearly, you would end up in Hell. Similarly for reincarnation and the nihilist void of death. Although amongst those, only a single one would be likely to affect the real world.
This in turn had interesting consequences. If you didn’t live your own life according to your own beliefs, it could have disastrous consequences. And unfortunately, one’s own beliefs are not always trivially changed, fears easily affecting it. Once introduced to this idea, few people adopted the nihilistic view, since they felt empowered to affect their own post-demise prospects. However, few imagined that it would simply be best-case scenario, and most were under the impression the result would be swayed by their own moral system, and how closely they abode by it. Nothing too surprising there, based on our own world’s religion, all it did was reinforce the ethical beliefs, which we can see throughout traditional societies. Warrior tribes fighting according to their own notions of honor. Abrahamic religions encouraging their own moral systems. Reincarnation believers considering their own impact on the planet for future reincarnations.
The only difference was that this was truly at the personal level, instead of societal. And it initially caused some strife within the society, before becoming a bit more stable. Most people agreed with basic ethical tenets, such as don’t kill, don’t steal and the likes, leading to an era of general harmony. Moreover, a natural corollary of those belief axioms came in the form of a concept you might be familiar with: Karma. And like a beneficial disease, the belief in Karma spread like wild fire. People started believing that their own lapses in their ethical values might not only have long-term consequences, but also short-term ones. And on the flip-side, good actions would also lead to good results. And this was also a self-reinforcing, self-propagating system. If you believe your own good actions will reverberate and come back to you, you’ll want to reward good actions with more good actions.
Some people realized that being ethical because you’re worried about consequences, or hoping for a reward, was not nearly as great as intrinsically wanting to live up to your own beliefs, they still agreed that at a societal level, it was still a more than competent substitute. And so they encouraged them. But unfortunately, nothing lasts forever.
So, what happened to this ancient civilization? Well, we’re not sure. For all we know, they still persist here to this day. However, it is believed that they realized that this system, going unregulated, did not scale well. It had a risk of chaotic agents arising, which could completely disable this system. One’s beliefs being outrageously out of the norm, leading to abusive or destructive behavior, while most people couldn’t really condemn them for it, acknowledging and accepting their right to their own beliefs. And thus, an elite group came up with a plan, which for their own future, was accepted by their society, still limited in size. They couldn’t allow for the freedom of beliefs to go own unchecked. They had to tame it, direct it, make it more constructive.
Accordingly so, the elite started creating specific tenets that most people believed in and agreed upon. From there, they would remove any trace of the existing system, any trace of this ancient Philosopher and its shocking revelation. No more insights into individualized beliefs. Or so legend says.
Still, they couldn’t leave this completely to chance, so a select few would still know, and propagate this new system: A Cabal. It is believed that most ancient religions that came about with their own ethical system and consequences or rewards based on how you would abide by it, were either derived or shaped by them. But obviously, most systems tend to be corrupted over time. How else can you explain the crusades being ethically justified within a framework that should condemn such actions?
But why introduce you to this ancient belief of beliefs? For two reasons. First, if your own belief has the potential to shape your after-life, why not actually give it a chance. Could be for a wonderful adventure, instead of simply closing your book. Second, in modern society, ethical values seem to be a short on change, basically a bankrupted currency, not because people don’t believe in them, but rather because they see them as non-reinforceable, and thus follow the “cold numbers”, where ethical values are simply a delta that can sway the public and affect their bottom lines, but nothing more. We might have reached a point where once again, we might need to move to a system of freer beliefs, where people are once again faced with perceived impacts of going against their own values. But then again, are we even mature enough?