How can we justify belief without getting into regress argument?

Question

And I don't mean belief as in religion etc., but belief as in general knowledge. Like in question 'why is the sky blue?' and once one provides an answer, we can keep on asking 'why?' or 'why is that so?'. So, how to avoid this logical stalemate?

Angel, I can't agree more with you:

'You don't have to justify liking it and I don't have to justify not liking it!!'

If life is that easy, we won't have to face so many difficulties in this world.

Answer 1

This is a phase kids go through isn't it... the "Why" phase. They ask "mum why is X?" Mummy give a reply to which they then ask "why?" again and this goes on for a while until mummy snaps "Because I SAID SO!"

I think as adults you have to accept there are not answers to all the questions you would like to have answers to. Why? Because there aren't and that's that. You have to learn to let things go. There are so many things we CAN find out and know about, you have to let the things which can't be answered go.... Often there isn't a right or wrong answer, a lot of things are a matter of opinions anyway.

And with opinion based answers you shouldn't / can't / don't have to justify or explain why. If you tell me the painting is beautiful I might ask you why? If I think its vile or ugly you might ask me why? We'd try to explain WHAT it is about it that gives us our opinion, but at the end of the day, we'd probably have to agree to differ and allow each other to have our own opinion. You don't have to justify liking it and I don't have to justify not liking it!!

Answer 2

We can't, because our beliefs are rarely justfied. They are certainly not justified in an absolute way, and usually they're pretty poorly justified even in a relative way. Because they're based on our own very limited experience. And our minds tend to only deal with reality one little piece at a time, while yet thinking that that piece is all there is, the sum total of reality. So it creates beliefs based on these little pieces of reality. But reality is HUGE HUGE HUGE. There are six billion people in this world. So our beliefs rarely stand up to much questioning.

Answer 3

One point in life is to remember life is a journey to solve what is not known. We are a student forever, we seek knowledge forever. Logic is only logical to those who seek logic. The best way to find your answer is to step out of the logic and to be more abstract. Creating more points of view creates more more possible solutions. More solutions creates more ends to the means. Logic is a sensible term as is chaos, one cannot exist without the other. logic should never be considered a absolute. Critical thinking can be a blast and a headache.

Answer 4

The mind is a very versatile tool. Just as a claw hammer can extract nails as well as put them into walls, so an imagination can be used to see through deception - as well as to create it. Usually, though, we know what we are doing with a hammer. But occasionally, we assume one process is taking place inside our head only to realise, belatedly, that it was actually another. There is some doubt about what you are seeing and thinking. Companions are surprised by some of the conclusions you appear to be reaching. Are they right - or are you? It's a bit of both - but you are not as wrong as you fear. You can reach for bigger and better things now

(((((((((*!*)))))))))))

Answer 5

Accept it for what it is. Stop seeking the security of an absolute answer, which is really just one perspective, and accept things for what they are without trying to label or define it.

We use our mind to define things, or make them small enough to fit in the mind, but we are more than our mind and those things we define are always greater than their definition. The definition will always fail to carry the essence of the actual thing it defines. Just as no matter how hard you try to describe an emotion, they only way to understand it is to experience it for yourself.

Instead of confining anything to a rigid answer, experience it, let it go, and leave yourself empty and able to receive whatever comes next.

One way to describe it is to always seek to understand all things while never expecting to.