Agnostic.com

11 7

We all hold some assumptions to be true and they lie too deep to be proved; one could call them framing beliefs. Like a frame, those fundamental beliefs are not part of the picture (i.e. our daily experiences, our world-view, our norms...), but they give it its shape, its outline, its orientation.

Every individual, and every culture, has framing beliefs that determine their fundamental stance towards the world. Those beliefs shape the way we see things, how we talk about them and the way we respond. Usually we are not conscious of them, precisely because they are frames, not part of the picture. It takes some effort to unearth our own assumptions. The vast majority of people save themselves this trouble, even among the educated classes.

Matias 8 May 17
Share

Enjoy being online again!

Welcome to the community of good people who base their values on evidence and appreciate civil discourse - the social network you will enjoy.

Create your free account

11 comments

Feel free to reply to any comment by clicking the "Reply" button.

1

I tried to reply to @WilliamFlemming but for some reason my 'reply' button isn't working. What I want to say is that 'assumptions' arent good enough to believe in. By all means pose an hypothesis and then experiment to see if your hypothesis holds weight. If we as atheists, aren't practicing critical thinking skills then we have no right to call ourselves atheists. As @Allamda said: now more than ever do we need critical thinking skills.

As for 'framing beliefs', again, what basis is there for truth? None as far as I can see. Just because you're automatically a 'glass half empty' person does not mean that you can't decide to change and have a more positive outlook at things.

I was brought up in a very right wing family that discussed politics daily. To my parents it was all about economics. As I got older, did some personal critical thinking, I realised that no amount of economising was going to address climate change; right wingers were not concerned with social justice or distribution of wealth.

If I am completely off track here Matias, can you please give me an example. I might have 'framing beliefs' definition wrong.

I don’t think of an assumption as a belief. It is, as you say, a hypothesis that we use when thinking and reasoning. IMO no one should actually have any beliefs, because we are all basically ignorant. And we should be aware of our assumptions and be ready to change them.

I couldn’t respond or upvote yesterday but today I can. It’s magic. 🙂

Actually, as we speak, free market forces are on the verge of developing astounding new methods for generating carbon-free energy, methods spurned by bureaucrats thirty years ago. It is up to individuals to create wealth.

There has been some sort of reply glitch, it won't let you edit either. Try clearing your cache and restarting your browser.

5

This is true and it's why we should be willing to listen to opposite views. And if opposing views have supporting evidence, we really must be prepared to reconsider our own view. It is difficult to change our minds about something. It is not just christians who are ignorant. We ALL have biases, our brain is just wired that way, so we can make quick decisions.

4

I really dislike the word Belief. That's because Belief is one of the primary evils in our world. I try to avoid Belief wherever possible. If I catch myself using that word (or the verb form), I will yell at myself. It's not really necessary to actually "believe" anything. Rather, I observe things. And I can accept things. About the only time I allow myself to use the word is in the cool evening when I say, "I believe I'll have a cold beer."

I have the same belief as you...I believe I’ll have a cold beer..

0

Another term for framing beliefs is paradigm. No point, just sharing.

1

Assuming 🙂 that what you say is true, it would seem useless to engage in arguments. Each person’s assumptions, being unprovable as they are, are unassailable. For example, I might frame my world view on the assumption that there is a higher intelligent power in the universe aka God or Ultimate Reality beyond the sensory world of our perceptions. If your assumption is that the objective world of our perceptions is all that exists, and that intelligence arises only from electrochemical processes in the brain, then we will never agree unless we are willing to modify those basic assumptions. I can simply say that my belief in God is an assumption, requiring no proof, and that my assumption is just as valid as your assumption.

This point is courageously driven home by Donald Hoffman in his theory of Conscious Realism, where he frankly assumes the existence of an hierarchy of conscious agents. No apologies are needed for our basic assumptions, even though they are only guesses. From assumptions there might be derived a brilliant philosophy or scientific theory wherein phenomena fall together perfectly and in which predictions are borne out.

I think we are deluding ourselves if we think that mankind has some sort of profound knowledge and understanding of reality, all based on rational proof. The truth is that we are in a sea of bewilderment, with only a bit of tenuous and superficial understanding based on assumptions.

0

Probably the most sensible post of the week for me! Nice one, Matias..

1

Living in Germany taught me that over 50 years ago. That experience taught me that, if we are to communicate with clarity with a person from another culture, we must start by laying bare some of most basic assumptions so that we each know where the other is starting from and why. This is something that all skilled international leaders an foreign service officers from all nations know.

1

I’m going to suggest, from stuff I’ve read, that the right hemisphere of the brain is conditioned by genetic and epigenetic factors. This side of the brain decides what it will turn its attention to out of many choices. The left brain hemisphere focusses on what it needs to evaluate from what the right side presents. So we are, in a sense, twice limited in out thinking – once because of what the right brain is disposed to pay attention to and again by the focus of the left brain which emphasises features of the situation presented to it. Nonetheless, while many people don't change their views over the years, I think the brain is plastic enough to change its views and for people to then pass them on to their offspring.

0

"We all hold some assumptions to be true and they lie too deep to be proved..." Not necessarily "proved" but evidence that the particular belief is true. For instance, I believe the the U.S. A. will cease to exist as a world power. That belief cannot be "proved" but when one looks at all the other former world powers ( Egyptions, Romans, Carthaginians, ,Macedonians, etc., etc., and that they have all ceased to exist, that is convincing evidence enough for me.

1

Reminds me if Carl Jung's archetypes theory...

0

I agree fully. As a younger man I did not see where this all came from within me but I see it more and more today. Sometimes these framing forces come from a very simple source. Sometimes you will drop one for another but most people do not know this. I used to say "I do not have to prove myself to anyone" but this is totally wrong. We are all proving ourselves daily both to ourselves and others. Study this within and without of your being and you see how beliefs are formed. I'm finding things I said just a short time ago that I no longer agree with. I remember some of these things from years ago as well. Here is an example:

My job was in home repair and we got a new secretary. I drove one of their new white Ford trucks and we had radios in them. Of course, I wanted to impress the girl and CB radios were still popular. As they introduced her to me I told her they called me the White Knight. It was a flat out lie! Other aspects of the fib came from a song on the radio at that time where the man said "I'm the sheriff of Boone County." Did any of this cause an attraction between myself and the new girl. No, but I said it to impress her. There is a very good chance that it would have only impressed her if she was into CB radio as I was at the time.

I look back at things involving relationships -personal and job wise- and I see how events could be changed in some way. Knowing what influences you and where things come from might allow you to alter an event someway but our beliefs are framed in such a way that we are not likely to alter the final outcome.

Write Comment
You can include a link to this post in your posts and comments by including the text q:348018
Agnostic does not evaluate or guarantee the accuracy of any content. Read full disclaimer.