Humans have many beliefs that are unsupported by evidence. You could call these beliefs questionable, suspect, or even bankrupt. What beliefs?
I will list some categories:
Intended false beliefs for children, e.g., that Santa Claus exists.
Superstitions: I recently went on a cruise. The huge ship had a deck 12 and a deck 14, but no deck 13. There are many other superstitions, e.g., a black cat crossing your path is bad luck — so is walking underneath a ladder.
Psychotic delusions: These exist in a wide variety, e.g., aliens are hunting me, I can bring up the wind.
Conspiracy theory beliefs, such as that the former president of the USA was killed and replaced by a robot clone.
Distortions by anorexic individuals that they are fat when they actually are wasting away.
OCD distortions of something terrible happening to my family if I do not do something such as touch the doorknob three times.
Narcissists thinking that they are superior to everyone else.
Beliefs that one’s own religion is the only true one, even though there are many other religions that favor the belief that they are the only true one.
Belief in God (called the God Delusion by Richard Dawkins) and life after death.
Many of these beliefs serve specific purposes. Santa makes kids happy. Belief in God gives individuals moral rules to live by. Belief in life after death helps people fear death less — Valhalla awaits warriors who die in battle.
Happy people tend to rate themselves more positively than others do. For instance, the vast majority of adults describe themselves as better than average drivers. Depressed individuals do not rate themselves better than average.
Some unsupported beliefs get a person confined in a mental hospital. Other unsupported beliefs get a person chosen as the leader of a nation. Here I am thinking of Hitler and his delusions about Jews being inferior and enemies of the people.
Who decides what beliefs are suspect? You do. I do. We all do.
How can you judge whether a belief is false or true? You can believe what your parent or other authority figure told you or you can look at the evidence and apply reasoning.
Individuals tend to resist giving up a belief. It is like giving up a toe. People see their beliefs as part of their identity.
You might want to hold on to your suspect beliefs — if they bring you comfort. Religious beliefs, for instance, often contribute to life satisfaction.
It’s up to you whether you challenge one of your own beliefs — you can believe anything you want. However, there are risks associated with acting on beliefs, so you might want to apply some scrutiny to beliefs that lead to important behavior.
I could believe that we all are part of computer simulation — that no one on earth is alive. But I see no evidence to support this idea, so I mostly dismiss it without doing anything related to it.
However, I believe I am a better than average driver. What empirically unsupported beliefs do you hold near and dear?
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