Is it better to have a belief or a good idea?

Question

You can change an idea but you can't change a belief

(from the film "Dogma")

Answer 1

"Ideas you can change, but beliefs are harder"
(DOGMA)

Wicked film mate, "ah kill it kill it"
"sounds familiar"

"oh you were martered?"
"That's one way of looking at it, another would be to say I was bludgeoned to death by big ------- rocks!!!!"

LOL, classic mate, has a lot of sound advice in that film, all believers an non believers should watch it.

I'm with the idea perspective, beliefs shut you down to others, and yourself.

Perhaps you should of asked people that have seen the film to reply, aren't your responses the whole point of the film!!!!!

LOL, oh dear, we'll have to find another angle of approach.

Answer 2

sure you can change a belief. people undergo religious conversions or lose their faith all the time... my 11 year old daughter has just dropped her belief that one day me and her dad will get back together... when i was a kid i used to believe that there was a right and wrong answer to every question...

ideas are logical/rational/based on empirical evidence and can therefore be changed by rational argument, or other experience. beliefs are the interpretive framework we use to make sense of our experiences/ideas/thoughts, and are not able to be proven.

so a christian might interpret a co-incidence as god's hand at work in their lives, an atheist would just see statistical probabilities in the same experience... as such we have much more investment in beliefs being *right*. they are not head-based, but emotion based, and so can't usually be changed by rational argument. it tends to need significant experience that our current belief system is unable to cope with in order to change our beliefs. it would take an awful lot to shake my belief that i am an autonomous living human being, and not a cypher in some game of uber-sims. but i can't prove it either way.

that's why *beliefs* are so much bother - if you hold a different belief to me, it's going to challenge/upset my whole view of how the world works and how i fit into it. and we can't both be *right* from this point of view. (especially if we are talking about religious beliefs - i can't both believe that the only way to heaven is through jesus christ, and allow you to believe that you can get there by following mohammed.... the two just don;t compute... i don;t btw, that's just an example :) ) whereas if i have the idea that what jesus taught was pretty good, i can allow you to have a different idea...

i think this is what dogma was getting at. the emotional/psychological attachment to *beliefs* that mean we have to be *right* about our own.

Answer 3

You can change both; newer and better beliefs and ideas can replace older ones. With a better understanding of life beliefs can develop into better sense of believing. Even within the same set of beliefs of a creed or a religion people develop, and although they believe in the same thing but the way they believe can change enormously. They can become better in relating and interpreting their life issues with what they believe in. When independent, people search and find better beliefs for themselves until they find what is best suited to them, and all the way along through this process, they keep believing in one thing or the other. The search continues never ends, and no belief can be hundred percent. All good beliefs allow people certain amount of doubt to think, compare things and develop.

Now the ideas when contemplated well mature into personal opinions, opinions when shared across become common knowledge of things, and through out this process changes are be made, alternatives are considered, conflicts debated upon, things reviewed and the best possible ways to develop ideas are sought after. Opinions when regarded the best in truth become personal or common beliefs. We all believe in things we know for sure, and that we do not know many things. And all this enables us to think better.

Answer 4

It is better to have a good idea as long as the object is for good.
On the other hand, having a belief is also good. This is how we yearn to discover the truth and the falsity of what we believe by further investigations. Mankind has changed the world, and is still keen on changing for advancements while pursuing and standing their ground for the possibilities of their beliefs.

Answer 5

well, to have a belief doesn't mean it has to be in a religious sense always but yes, having beliefs can often be a good thing and anyway beliefs have a more of a personal resonance to it. an idea isn't just something that can be changed and altered to and is often based on society's expectations and so called 'norms'

Answer 6

Ideas are great it's what keeps us motivated and interested in life. Belief in something is generated usually from what you have read or what someone has told you or perhaps an experience you have had. Whatever, life is fantastic it is meant to be lived to the full so believe in what you want and never stop having ideas.

Answer 7

A Belief. Ideas can changed or be proved wrong. A belief can never be taken away from you, or proved wrong, as it is what you yourself belive to be truth. Although good ideas can motivate and inspire us, what use is a good idea, if you don't believe in it first?

Answer 8

A Belief is better, most "good ideas" never get used, a Belief you will carry with you and follow it.

Answer 9

although they were held up as a dichotomy in the film i think the meaning that he attached to a "good idea" was that it be belief without dogma. as far as i could see the point he was making is that dogmatic belief is restrictive, and ultimatly dangerous, whereas people who are prepared to doubt, evaluate and interact with their beliefs are less constrained, and ultimatly come to have a better relationship with their diety of choice.

Answer 10

Belief is nothing new - a good idea is bringing something different and new to the world - isn't that better?