Richard Quinn<p>When you find yourself about to say, "I <a href="https://mastodon.world/tags/believe" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>believe</span></a>…", stop and think.</p><p>Applying <a href="https://mastodon.world/tags/logicalReasoning" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>logicalReasoning</span></a> to <a href="https://mastodon.world/tags/empiricalEvidence" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>empiricalEvidence</span></a> leads to a conclusion that you 'accept', not one that you 'believe'.</p><p>Belief requires no <a href="https://mastodon.world/tags/evidence" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>evidence</span></a> or <a href="https://mastodon.world/tags/reasoning" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>reasoning</span></a>, only faith in the messenger.</p><p>If you can <a href="https://mastodon.world/tags/believe" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>believe</span></a> something that just happens to be true, then you can just as readily believe something that is false.</p><p>Do you 'accept' —as far as the evidence and reason lead— or do you not accept?</p><p>Having accepted, review regularly.</p>
