Whispers From the Axial Age
Part One: What is a Belief System?
At the moment of our birth, we're suddenly cold, there's sharpness everywhere, it's painful, the sound is louder than it's ever been, and we can't see anything, so we start crying, yelling at anyone who's listening that we're not okay. The sound is surprising since you were unaware you could produce such a loud noise but it feels great.
After crying louder, someone wraps you up, and it feels warmer, then you're moved around and placed in a warmer, softer spot with some familiar noises that are louder and clearer than ever before. You notice that the sounds coming from you are similar to the ones from all around but you don't know what they mean. You feel a squeeze from something warm that smells like home, only slightly different.
Congratulations! It's a belief! You remember the safe place and feel close to it again. Even though you still have to learn what a mother is.
Most people believe the building they're in isn't going to collapse on them. But some people do.
Most people don't believe people have been on Mars. But some people do.
People are naturally prone to believing in many things at once, and many beliefs remain subconscious for an individual's lifetime.
Building concepts, the mental map of things, is another instinct.
From an early age, concepts and beliefs are woven together, and sometimes, they are hard to unravel, particularly in cases where people feel strongly about something.
The baby will eventually come to know the people around him and build familial concepts before he can form sentences. If he were telling the above story, after learning English, he would say the 'arms of his mother' calmed him, and he stopped crying instead of 'a place that smells like home.' Repetition both refines and degrades concepts.
Our ability to conceptualize on a high level makes us apex predators and the most complex beings in the universe we can find.
Our conceptualizations of things form the backbone of our belief system.
Some beliefs come before conceptualization, as shown in the birth above. Many beliefs come after conceptualization, with varying mental difficulty. Few beliefs are conception-less and usually based on an experience of something, like God or the peak of a psychedelic trip, but we'll get into that later.
Some beliefs are false, dangerous, viral, or uncoupled from reality, but the terms to meet those qualifiers are disputed and variable, so I will largely avoid them. Tracing the etymologies of weird beliefs is a great time, but for another time. The belief systems I wish to understand are those that aren't dramatically informed by any one person's traumatic experiences or abnormal development.
I also don't wish to describe an ideal belief system, I'm interested in what it is and the patterns within it.
A belief system is like a worldview because it colors an individual's perception and interpretation of the world. Unlike a worldview, it influences behavior as much, if not more, than thought.
A belief system is a precursor to religion.
A belief system is a system of beliefs like a system of gears. You can turn one thing, and way over there, something else spins. The rabbit hole goes deep, and sometimes, it's hard to see how everything is connected.
Anyone can have a few belief systems, but not too many.
A belief system costs a lot of energy to maintain, and anyone can only invest in limited things before they suffer exhaustion or suspicion. Many people only have one belief system, and everything they do is dedicated to it. Others slide in and out of belief systems like shoes until everyone thinks they're completely valueless.
The consequences of having the wrong belief system can be uncomfortable.
As belief systems come with interrelated beliefs that influence thoughts and behavior, having a strange belief system is often recognizable by other people and judged. One small thing about someone can tip an educated observer off about all kinds of different beliefs they may have.
Belief systems are highly personal.
Other people can influence anyone's beliefs, often to a dramatic degree, but they can never force someone to believe something. In other words, everyone is responsible for their own belief system and its consequences.
But most importantly, belief systems become religions when they're successful enough. Stay tuned.