What Does it Mean to Believe in Something?

Validation of belief is based on searching one's heart and experience.

Believing in something is having faith in an idea that may or may not be based on factual evidence. It is part of a person's complicated network of deeply held ideas that guide choices.

Defining Belief

Religious faith involves accepting beliefs about the reason for our existence.

"Beliefs are the assumptions we make about ourselves, about others in the world and about how we expect things to be," according to the philosophical business website 1000 Ventures. Similarly, the personal development website 30 Sleeps describes beliefs as being "the set of abstractions through which you experience and create your life."

Believing in Something

Shopping for a job successfully requires persistence and belief in one's abilities.

Believing in something means having faith in the correctness of one's viewpoint about a personal ability, a set of rules, a religion, a course of action, a form of governance, the value of a promise or some other matter among life's myriad concerns. Both 1000 Ventures and 30 Sleeps say that believing in something affects the course of one's actions. Finding an interesting job, 30 Sleeps points out, may rely on thinking it is possible to do so if one is persistent and mails out enough resumes.

Leaps of Faith and Intuition

Scientific innovation may involve hunches.

Even scientists may rely on faith instead of facts. The British newspaper The Times asked 11 scientists whether they had any beliefs they could not prove. They included a geneticist who said, "I believe but I cannot prove that the biological basis of our individuality is not knowable." Only one of the respondents replied that he didn't believe in anything he couldn't prove.

References

• 1000 Ventures: Beliefs
• 30 Sleeps: Understanding Beliefs
• The Sunday Times: What Scientists Believe But Can't Prove...