Beliefs are the foundations upon which we build our sense of self. They are pivotal to our well being and happiness. But our beliefs are also personal, insecure and subjective. That’s partly because of the nature of knowledge itself, but also because most beliefs are just habitual opinions. Human beings are so riddled with bias, that it is sometimes difficult to discern facts from all our prejudices. 

Everyone is entitled to their own opinions; no one is entitled to their own facts

In our everyday lives, we confuse beliefs with facts. A fact is something that can be shown to be real or true. Beliefs, on the other hand, are subjective opinions that cannot easily be verified. 

Examples of facts are:

• Your heart pumps blood through your body.
• Life on earth has evolved.
• Greenhouse gases trap heat in the atmosphere and so raise average global surface air temperatures. 

Facts are shown to be true through scientific observation or measurement. While all facts are open to challenge, you would need to produce scientific counter evidence to disprove facts that have already been accepted to be true. You might personally believe that certain facts aren’t true, but your opinion is not going to overturn decades of research and analytical study, no matter how much you want them to be true. 

Examples of beliefs are:

• That ghosts really exist. 
• That we go to heaven when we die. 
• Children need a strict upbringing.

Wishing beliefs were true, doesn’t make them true

Personally, I believe there’s an afterlife waiting for me when I die, and that ghosts are a real phenomena, but sadly, I don’t have any concrete evidence for either of them. This makes them beliefs, not facts. People are free to believe whatever they wish, without having to provide evidence and this is a problem, because it leads to all kinds of erratic, unstable views. 

For example, some people believe that climate change is a hoax, but this can only ever be a personal opinion, until they come up with overwhelming facts that overturn the scientific consensus. It isn’t enough for them to recite a stack of statistics, or even make a YouTube video of contrary ‘evidence’, because climate change is the consensus among scientists who make observations and gather evidence for a living. In short, there’s a well-established system and you aren’t going to beat the system until you play the game. And just to be clear, there will always be contrary opinions about the same data, but this isn’t the same as falsifying it. 

Prove it

You might say that the world is flat. I would just say – prove it. It’s not up to me to argue with you. I don’t need to prove you wrong, or know any climate facts and information myself, because I’ve got the weight of science on my side. Nor do I need to listen to your vague rants and ramblings while I’m enjoying my pint, thank you. You are wrong until you prove science otherwise.

Other people believe that chemtrails are spreading toxic agents to control the weather, or that a group of clandestine billionaires are secretly trying to bring about the end of the world. All of these are beliefs, not facts. If they were provable, then the consensus would change. Some reputable people have beliefs that are contrary to the accepted view, and that’s fine, but it doesn’t make them right either. Until they come up with the evidence, it’s only their considered opinion.

Muddy Waters

What muddies the waters here, is that there really are some nefarious goings on in governments and secret organisations, and it often takes a lot of bravery, courage and sheer diligence, to uncover them. You only have to remember Nixon’s secret recordings during the Watergate crisis, or Putin’s propaganda machine, the Salisbury Poisonings, Julian Assange, Chelsea Manning or Edward Snowden, to know that things are going on behind our backs. These cover-ups and obfuscations are the reason why many conspiracy theories exist. 

Some people don’t trust governments, or the media for that matter, and quite rightly. The Press in the UK are heavily controlled by Conservative Party donors, and it’s a similar story in the USA, which means you just cannot trust the media to report things fairly or properly. They really do lie to us. Add to this the non-stop barrage of videos and documentaries on TV and YouTube about ancient aliens, crop circles, UFO’s, the Illuminati, the Crusaders, QAnon, the Holy Grail, the Turin Shroud, you name it, humans have made it up or lied about it. No wonder people believe some strange things.

Old news is good news

Conspiracy theories date back almost as far as the first written records. Jews and Christians alike were preaching about the End of the World in Roman times, and conspiracy theories circulated that the Emperor Nero had been spotted after his death, two thousand years before Elvis was spotted in my local chip shop. In Medieval times people believed Jews were poisoning the water wells, thousands of people were persecuted for being witches, and it was commonly believed that fairies could steal a child and substitute it with a changeling. As a species, we are as likely to believe in stories as we are what’s real, and we have never been any different.

Facts come from decades of empirically observed and tested studies, by the world’s greatest minds. Beliefs are more likely to be things we heard about on YouTube, or from a bloke down the pub.

Where do beliefs come from? 

I was a teacher and worked in education for nearly thirty years. This gives me an insight into how young minds work. Children learn the things they believe from their parents, family or friends. They love to tell stories, they have a propensity for the shocking, the scandalous and the preposterous. As a teacher, I would regularly have to puncture their imaginary balloons and bring them back down to earth. Some of their beliefs were ludicrous, but others were more sinister, especially the ones young boys espoused during the Andrew Tate years. Our daily task was to teach knowledge and facts, but our pastoral time was often spent dispelling rumours and misinformation. 

Most of us have a smorgasbord of beliefs, a wedding buffet of thoughts, beliefs and ideas, that we accumulated over the years, much like the weight on my stomach.

I know approximately how my fat belly got there, but I couldn’t pinpoint it exactly. If you wanted me to verify my diet, or asked me to show you exact evidence of what I ate, and when, I couldn’t. We are all pretty much like this. Our memories are appallingly bad, so we just wing our beliefs, opinions and decisions via intuition and instinct. We believe and do what we think is right, what feels good.

Because of this, people are more likely to believe something that is said by someone they know and trust, or identify with, rather than from a stranger. People are more likely to hold radical beliefs if they have a mistrust of authority, if they want to be different, or if they don’t feel like they fit into the status quo. Believing things that the establishment reject, is an act of defiance and rebellion. Part of this skewed world view is that the majority of us are sheep’s, blindly following orders, while only they know the real truth. Any evidence to the contrary of their distorted world view is falsified, or fake. 

How can I change his mind?

You can’t argue with beliefs if they aren’t based on logic. Nothing you can say, or any evidence you can provide, can alter a person’s beliefs if they weren’t based on evidence in the first place. In any case, you should never attack the person, or deride them, or laugh at them, because this just makes people double down on their beliefs. A wounded beast is a dangerous beast.

The best way of handling situations like this is to make the person holding the views feel valued, and to understand that it is enormously difficult to alter an opinion or worldview. I know, I’ve changed mine on occasions when overwhelming evidence made me do it, and it isn’t easy.

Anyway, we cannot and should not attempt to make everyone believe the same thing. I hold contrary views and beliefs to many of the people I love most in my life, but we are respectful and open about our differences without falling out. It is this that is key. Not trying to change people to think the same as we do, but to learn to live peacefully with everyone, regardless of their beliefs, and however strange we might find their opinions.