When cultivating a personal belief system, what do you think are the important questions to ask yourself?

Answer 1

Is it true? Does it fit what my brain tells me? Does it fit what I have seen in life? Does it make sense to me? aen

Answer 2

Ask nothing, and see the answers appear before you. Your "personal beliefs" should not come from judgement calls but rather, from what your being appreciates and accepts, even without even fully understanding ... to cultivate means "to grow and care for." It means you've planted the seeds and if nurtured and you are patient, a time of harvest will come. Then, consider what you have learned about yourself and all that is around you, and Harvest that, for your personal system.

Answer 3

Why am I cultivating a personal belief system?

Why do I believe that personal belief systems are necessary to have?

Why model am I currently using?

What alternative models exist?

What are the greatest personal belief systems known to man?

Who created them?

Do these creators share common characteristics?

Would inculcating these characteristics in myself be helpful?

External resource follows.


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The following are suggested as tools for testing arguments and detecting fallacious or fraudulent arguments:


* Wherever possible there must be independent confirmation of the facts
* Encourage substantive debate on the evidence by knowledgeable proponents of all points of view.
* Arguments from authority carry little weight (in science there are no "authorities").
* Spin more than one hypothesis - don't simply run with the first idea that caught your fancy.
* Try not to get overly attached to a hypothesis just because it's yours.
* Quantify, wherever possible.
* If there is a chain of argument every link in the chain must work.
* "Occam's razor" - if there are two hypothesis that explain the data equally well choose the simpler.
* Ask whether the hypothesis can, at least in principle, be falsified (shown to be false by some unambiguous test). In other words, is it testable? Can others duplicate the experiment and get the same result?


Additional issues are

* Conduct control experiments - especially "double blind" experiments where the person taking measurements is not aware of the test and control subjects.
* Check for confounding factors - separate the variables.


Common fallacies of logic and rhetoric

* Ad hominem - attacking the arguer and not the argument.
* Argument from "authority".
* Argument from adverse consequences (putting pressure on the decision maker by pointing out dire consequences of an "unfavourable" decision).
* Appeal to ignorance (absence of evidence is not evidence of absence).
* Special pleading (typically referring to god's will).
* Begging the question (assuming an answer in the way the question is phrased).
* Observational selection (counting the hits and forgetting the misses).
* Statistics of small numbers (such as drawing conclusions from inadequate sample sizes).
* Misunderstanding the nature of statistics (President Eisenhower expressing astonishment and alarm on discovering that fully half of all Americans have below average intelligence!)
* Inconsistency (e.g. military expenditures based on worst case scenarios but scientific projections on environmental dangers thriftily ignored because they are not "proved").
* Non sequitur - "it does not follow" - the logic falls down.
* Post hoc, ergo propter hoc - "it happened after so it was caused by" - confusion of cause and effect.
* Meaningless question ("what happens when an irresistible force meets an immovable object?).
* Excluded middle - considering only the two extremes in a range of possibilities (making the "other side" look worse than it really is).
* Short-term v. long-term - a subset of excluded middle ("why pursue fundamental science when we have so huge a budget deficit?").
* Slippery slope - a subset of excluded middle - unwarranted extrapolation of the effects (give an inch and they will take a mile).
* Confusion of correlation and causation.
* Straw man - caricaturing (or stereotyping) a position to make it easier to attack..
* Suppressed evidence or half-truths.
* Weasel words - for example, use of euphemisms for war such as "police action" to get around limitations on Presidential powers. "An important art of politicians is to find new names for institutions which under old names have become odious to the public"

Answer 4

The most important question is what or Who is the basis of my belief? Is this only a tradition, a form of wishful thinking or an intimate relationship with the Living God through His Messiah, Jesus. Whatever you do, build on the Rock.

Answer 5

ask yourself to research any belief to find if the things taught are from the first true religion ( of the first century Christians- the disciples of christ)

ask if the belief would be pleasing to God

will the belief also lead to help for your fellow man

does it adhere to the Bible as it's authority

Answer 6

The Koran teaches that folk of the muslim faith could kill their enemies, Jesus taught that we could consistently love our enemies. Buddha taught that there is no sin/forgivness. Jesus gave his existence below the perception that He became the sacrifice for everyones sin. The Hindu's have faith there are a number of gods, Jesus taught that there is One God. Jesus taught that mankind had a initiating, and would have an end, maximum others teach that issues are on a cycle that doesn't end. There are alot of different adjustments, and the main difficult or outrageous is that which holds Jesus as much as be the son of God, and his death on my own is the atonement for each guy or woman's sin... in line with each and everything i've got examine, it leaves in straightforward terms 3 concepts, he became who he says he became, or he became loopy, or he deliberatly lied to anybody he got here into touch with. i do no longer think of he became loopy via ways background recorded him. i do no longer think of he became mendacity, because of the fact his movements and speech weren't in settlement with mendacity his 12 closest friends died tremendously undesirable deaths in line with a fact. If it became a lie, they could have admitted it particularly than get their heads chopped off, or impaled, or the like... who could die for a lie? there is extra, yet it somewhat is a pair of recommendations that are evoked as to why i think of my faith is actual and maximum suitable, and others incorrect. in simple terms my 2 cents

Answer 7

Am I happy?
Do I have fond memories of my past?
Do I contribute to society?
Am I growing emotionally and intellectually?
I'm I a good person? Honest, helpful, caring, compassionate.
Do I have any emotional baggage that I need to understand and resolve?
I'm content with how I run my life?

You may not have perfect answers for all of these but at least keeping them headed in a direction you're comfortable with will help.

Answer 8

"what do you think are the important questions to ask yourself? "

Did Jesus really know what He was talking about when He said?....

John 14:6 Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

John 3:16 "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.

Answer 9

What is truth? How can I avoid ignorance? How can I help my fellow human? Where is compassion? Where is the balance between other people's and my personal happiness? What is justice? Who am I?

Answer 10

The most important question is does it make sense? If it doesn't make logical sense than throw it out .