Testing Beliefs

Good thinking is the essential foundation for all our efforts to be successful in life, to achieve our goals, to create better lives for ourselves and our families, and a better society for everyone. Whether we are choosing a mechanic to work on our car or a doctor to perform surgery, buying a house or planning for retirement, changing jobs or voting in an election, the quality of our thinking will have a lot to do with whether we succeed or fail, whether we win or lose, whether we make our lives, and our world, better or worse.

Bad thinking, on the other hand, leads to failures and foolish mistakes; it leads to missed opportunities and leaves us at the mercy of manipulators who cunningly make sure they get what they want... without any regard to what is best for us. It can even lead to injustice, or worse: as Voltaire once said, “Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities.”

Learning to think better is a lifelong quest but it begins with the recognition that good thinking is important, vital to our success, in some cases even a matter of life and death, and then making a conscious effort to improve our critical thinking skills.

"Criticism is the examination and test of propositions of any kind which are offered for acceptance, in order to find out whether they correspond to reality or not. The critical faculty is a product of education and training. It is a mental habit and power. It is a prime condition of human welfare that men and women should be trained in it. It is our only guarantee against delusion, deception, superstition, and misapprehension of ourselves and our earthly circumstances."

A lot of critical thinking just comes down to asking ourselves questions about our beliefs and then trying to answer them:

• What is it exactly that you believe?
• Can you clearly and unambiguously define the words and phrases you use to express your belief?

• How important is the belief?
• Is it something very important that is worth spending a lot of time on or not? (Deciding which restaurant to have lunch at should not take much time. Deciding which house to buy should take quite a lot of time.)

• Why do you believe what you believe?
• Do you have strong evidence or just weak evidence?
• Can you prove it with a logical argument? (Remember that "proof" comes in different "levels." It can be a matter of probability, or beyond a reasonable doubt, or actually certain, which will usually only happen in mathematics.)
• Do you have to depend on expert testimony or can you analyze the evidence for yourself? (Don't be afraid to listen to experts and learn from them. That's what experts are for!)

• Do you have time to learn more about your belief by reading articles or books?
• How do good thinkers defend your belief?
• How do good thinkers oppose your belief?
• Which side has the best evidence and the best arguments?

In real life we can't always be sure we know the truth. In cases like that you don't have to be paralyzed.

• Can you at least explain why a particular belief is beneficial to you?
• Makes you're life better?
• Makes society better?

If you can answer these questions in the affirmative then it is OK to keep right on believing something you can't prove. Just don't pretend your belief is based on facts and logic, admit that it is based on your faith and your values rather than some kind of proof.

Whatever else you do, keep thinking and keep learning!

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Copyright © 2017 by Joseph Wayne Gadway

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[This looks like a great book about critical thinking. If you read it before I do please send me a review I can publish here at Anything Smart.]
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