\r\nThis was written December 5th, 2025<\/i>\r\n<\/p>\r\n\r\nBeliefs<\/h2>\r\n
\r\nBeliefs, they tend to be a core identity of religion. In modern times,\r\nwe’ve even started to consider Gods’ powers as being proportional to how\r\nmuch people believed in them, how much they are worshiped. Beyond that,\r\nsome science now seems to indicate that belief itself can greatly influence\r\none’s health. The placebo effect, the nocebo effect. Some things once generally\r\nconsidered harmful, such as stress, seem to only be harmful when we believe\r\nthey are harmful. Those are clear indications of our own perception of reality\r\nshaping it, at a microscale.\r\n<\/p>
\r\nAncient people used to simply use belief implicitly through their own myths\r\nand religion, but there is legend of a tribe who realized the power of\r\nbelief, and made it a core tenet of their society. Were they valid in\r\nsuch beliefs? Who knows, beliefs and their impact, even to this day,\r\nand difficult to measure. Which some believers suspect is in part because of\r\nthe observer’s own belief biasing the results themselves, ironically. But\r\nwhat we do know is what remains of their legend.\r\n<\/p>
\r\nAs people of this ancient culture gradually came to see how their own beliefs\r\nwere affecting them, they realized that they should start using them to their\r\nown advantage. But like with so many other cultures, it simply started with their\r\nreligion. But how could this shape their religion? Well, it started with a precept\r\nabout their afterlife. One of their own philosophers surmised that one’s afterlife\r\nis shaped by their own beliefs. Thus, if you believe in heaven, you might be faced\r\nwith some heaven once you passed away. If you believed in a purgatory, you might\r\nhave to visit those fiery depths to repent before being allowed into a heaven.\r\nIf you believed in Heaven and Hell, and suspected you might not have led a just\r\nlife, well then, clearly, you would end up in Hell. Similarly for reincarnation\r\nand the nihilist void of death. Although amongst those, only a single one would\r\nbe likely to affect the real world.\r\n<\/p>
\r\nThis in turn had interesting consequences. If you didn’t live your own life according\r\nto your own beliefs, it could have disastrous consequences. And unfortunately, one’s\r\nown beliefs are not always trivially changed, fears easily affecting it. Once introduced\r\nto this idea, few people adopted the nihilistic view, since they felt empowered to\r\naffect their own post-demise prospects. However, few imagined that it would simply\r\nbe best-case scenario, and most were under the impression the result would be\r\nswayed by their own moral system, and how closely they abode by it. Nothing too surprising\r\nthere, based on our own world’s religion, all it did was reinforce the ethical beliefs,\r\nwhich we can see throughout traditional societies. Warrior tribes fighting according\r\nto their own notions of honor. Abrahamic religions encouraging their own moral systems.\r\nReincarnation believers considering their own impact on the planet for future reincarnations.\r\n<\/p>
\r\nThe only difference was that this was truly at the personal level, instead of societal.\r\nAnd it initially caused some strife within the society, before becoming a bit more stable.\r\nMost people agreed with basic ethical tenets, such as don’t kill, don’t steal and the\r\nlikes, leading to an era of general harmony. Moreover, a natural corollary of those\r\nbelief axioms came in the form of a concept you might be familiar with: Karma. And like\r\na beneficial disease, the belief in Karma spread like wild fire. People started believing\r\nthat their own lapses in their ethical values might not only have long-term consequences,\r\nbut also short-term ones. And on the flip-side, good actions would also lead to good\r\nresults. And this was also a self-reinforcing, self-propagating system. If you believe\r\nyour own good actions will reverberate and come back to you, you’ll want to reward good\r\nactions with more good actions.\r\n<\/p>
\r\nSome people realized that being ethical because you’re worried about consequences, or\r\nhoping for a reward, was not nearly as great as intrinsically wanting to live up to\r\nyour own beliefs, they still agreed that at a societal level, it was still a more than\r\ncompetent substitute. And so they encouraged them. But unfortunately, nothing lasts\r\nforever.\r\n<\/p>
\r\nSo, what happened to this ancient civilization? Well, we’re not sure. For all we know,\r\nthey still persist here to this day. However, it is believed that they realized that this\r\nsystem, going unregulated, did not scale well. It had a risk of chaotic agents arising,\r\nwhich could completely disable this system. One’s beliefs being outrageously out of the\r\nnorm, leading to abusive or destructive behavior, while most people couldn’t really\r\ncondemn them for it, acknowledging and accepting their right to their own beliefs. And\r\nthus, an elite group came up with a plan, which for their own future, was accepted by\r\ntheir society, still limited in size. They couldn’t allow for the freedom of beliefs to\r\ngo own unchecked. They had to tame it, direct it, make it more constructive.\r\n<\/p>
\r\nAccordingly so, the elite started creating specific tenets that most people believed in\r\nand agreed upon. From there, they would remove any trace of the existing system, any trace\r\nof this ancient Philosopher and its shocking revelation. No more insights into individualized\r\nbeliefs. Or so legend says.\r\n<\/p>
\r\nStill, they couldn’t leave this completely to chance, so a select few would still know,\r\nand propagate this new system: A Cabal. It is believed that most ancient religions that\r\ncame about with their own ethical system and consequences or rewards based on how you\r\nwould abide by it, were either derived or shaped by them. But obviously, most systems\r\ntend to be corrupted over time. How else can you explain the crusades being ethically\r\njustified within a framework that should condemn such actions?\r\n<\/p>
\r\nBut why introduce you to this ancient belief of beliefs? For two reasons.\r\nFirst, if your own belief has the potential to shape your after-life, why not actually\r\ngive it a chance. Could be for a wonderful adventure, instead of simply closing your book.\r\nSecond, in modern society, ethical values seem to be a short on change, basically a\r\nbankrupted currency, not because\r\npeople don’t believe in them, but rather because they see them as non-reinforceable, and\r\nthus follow the “cold numbers”, where ethical values are simply a delta that can sway the\r\npublic and affect their bottom lines, but nothing more.\r\nWe might have reached a point where once again, we might need to move to a system of\r\nfreer beliefs, where people are once again faced with perceived impacts of going against\r\ntheir own values. But then again, are we even mature enough?\r\n<\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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 … Continue reading Writing Challenge 2025 \u2013 08 – Beliefs<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"bgseo_title":"","bgseo_description":"","bgseo_robots_index":"index","bgseo_robots_follow":"follow","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2489","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shawnmeanders.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2489","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shawnmeanders.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shawnmeanders.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shawnmeanders.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shawnmeanders.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2489"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.shawnmeanders.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2489\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2490,"href":"https:\/\/www.shawnmeanders.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2489\/revisions\/2490"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shawnmeanders.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2489"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shawnmeanders.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2489"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shawnmeanders.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2489"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}