The most important thing to understand about rationality is that there is no such thing as a belief. This might surprise you. After all, haven’t Christians and Muslims been talking for over a thousand years about beliefs as if they’re real? Yes, but just because Christians and Muslims believe that something is real doesn’t mean it’s real.
Beliefs are not real. They’re like the Abrahamic God. They do not exist. In fact, beliefs are even less real than God is. God is merely wrong. Beliefs are Not Even Wrong.
The scientific method is based on the idea of provability. Provability describes a claim that can be proved or disproved. provability can go in either direction.
Not Even Wrong describes a claim that cannot be proved or disproved. Is God a trinity (like the Chrstians claim) or unitary (in the Muslim sense)? The question is Not Even Wrong because there is no way to prove it one way or the other, because God isn’t real.
Claims about belief (e.g. “Fred believes $x$”) are Not Even Wrong, because beliefs aren’t real.
Do I believe that the Moon is made of cheese? This question is nonsense, not because the moon is made of cheese, but because “I believe” is nonsense. Watch this.
I, Lsusr, believe with 100% confidence that the Moon is made out of Swiss cheese.
Does me writing that sentence prove that I believe that the Moon is made out of Swiss cheese? Of course not. I could be lying. I could be sarcastic. I could be joking. The fact I wrote “I, Lsusr, believe with 100% confidence that the Moon is made out of Swiss cheese,” doesn’t prove that I believe that the moon is made out of Swiss cheese. I just wrote words.
If you ever find yourself wondering “Why do people believe <ridiculous thing>?”, you can replace “believe” with “say they believe” and then the observation makes sense.
| "believe" | "say they believe" |
|---|---|
| Why do people believe in God? | Why do people say they believe in God? |
| Why do people believe the Earth is flat? | Why do people say they believe the Earth is flat? |
| Why do people believe the Moon landing was a hoax? | Why do people say the Moon landing is a hoax? |
| Why do people believe that vaccines cause autism? | Why do people say they believe that vaccines cause autism? |
| Why do people believe that Paris is the capitol of France? | Why do people say they believe that Paris is the capitol of France? |
But haven’t Christians and Muslims fought countless over belief? Nope. Not a single one. Every religious war ostensibly about what people “believe” was really about what people “say they believe”. You can go to the most intolerant communities on Planet Earth and you will not be judged by what is contained within your head. You may be judged by what you say and how you act. You may be judged by your race, your sex, your accent and your nationality. But no culture judges you based on your thoughts. The only way they could do that was if they had a lie detector. Real[1] lie detectors do not exist. If what happens in your brain stays in your brain, then nobody cares.
Since beliefs aren’t real, any system of thought based on the idea of belief is broken to its core. This includes not just Christianity and Islam, but also Yudkowskianism, in which “belief” plays a load-bearing role.
[1] Fake lie detectors do exist. Polygraphs are a magic trick. ↩