Belief Is Dangerous And Should Be Avoided

I would like to say I appreciate my opponents curtious nature but he usually can not change the resolution after the debate has been accepted. My opponent makes the correct assessment that his resolution is a belief in itself. Though since my opponent has been civil in this debate to date, I will accept his revised resolution and precede. I would ask the readers to think about these changes throughout the debate. Revised Resolution Accepted: Belief Can Be Dangerous(I agree) and In Most Cases It's Probably In Our Best Interest To Avoid It(I disagree) My objective then is to show that it is in peoples best interest to use belief systems(we should not avoid it but embrace it. ) A belief is a state of certainty that's held about specific people, things, ideas or experiences of life. Our beliefs come from a variety of places like our environment, past experiences, our families, through education, and just creative thinking. [1] The greatest belief you can have is belief in yourself or for the theist, it is confidence in God. If it is God or yourself, you need to believe you can do whatever you need to do. Self-confidence relates to self-assuredness in one's personal judgment, ability, power, etc. [2] The field of social psychology suggested that positive illusory, or irrational, beliefs can be beneficial for the promotion of well being and mental health. They identified in particular three different types of beliefs which they thought contributed to the promotion of mental health. These were unrealistically positive views of the self, illusions of control and unrealistic optimism. [3] Predisposed to believe There is no one cognitive tendency for all our beliefs. People search for meaning, particularly during times of uncertainty, research suggests. A 2008 study in Science (Vol. 322, No. 5898) by Jennifer Whitson, PhD, and Adam Galinsky, PhD, found that people were more likely to see patterns in a random display of dots if the researchers first primed them to feel that the participants had no control. This finding suggests that people are primed to see signs and patterns in the world around them, the researchers conclude. [4] Such research also supports the notion that belief is in many ways an unavoidable by product of the way our minds work. Neural underpinnings Neuroscience research supports the idea that the brain is primed to believe, says Jordan Grafman, PhD, director of the cognitive neuroscience section at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. This tendency, he says, is spread throughout the brain, and probably arose from neural circuits developed for other uses. [4] Conclusion As pointed out, believing is part of our nature and is essential for our growth throughout life. Belief and development are seemingly inseparable. Conceptually religions provide believers a guideline about life and the life-after and thus provide much-needed incentives for indulging in productive activities during a lifetime. Most of the empirical studies point to a positive relationship between beliefs and economic growth and development. [5] REBUTTAL Superiority- My opponent misses the mark here as so many believe they are not superior to anyone. Most people have a tendency to seek and believe in freedom and rights toward their fellow man. There are abuses and fanatic beliefs but my opponent must show they out weigh the common variety of social beliefs. Injustice- My opponent gets into physiological interpretations and not just beliefs here. My opponent is correct in his assessment that unfair and unfortunate things happen but he must show that a majority of people believe in this and it causes more harm to society than it helps. Vulnerability- My opponent beliefs in this instance accuses him of the same thing he is implying. My opponent must show the threat of vulnerable thinking and the effect it has on society. Distrust- My opponent makes assertions here. My opponent assumes that all hostile parties can not determine what is hostile and what is not hostile. Helplessness- My opponent gave us no example for helplessness. I am not familiar with beliefs that portray helplessness. 1) Belief is optional. To base our perception on facts, knowledge and experience, it would take belief in what is the facts and what determines knowledge. If we did not believe in what we perceive then how could we ever be sure of anything? My opponent forgets that when one finds facts and knowledge then belief in those facts and that knowledge form. I have shown how it is essential that beliefs are formed. My opponent also identifies that even facts and knowledge we think are true could actually be untrue. [6] Therefore we can not just rely on facts and knowledge but also beliefs from perception. My opponent also uses the fact that, to learn we must make mistakes, as a shot to say that beliefs should not be necessary. We have many beliefs that have been shown as facts by our perception and those facts occurred because of trial and error on beliefs previously held. 2) Belief keeps people from searching for new, and possibly superior, information. If we did not believe in something then we would never even have a learning process. Anyone who is honest, a believer or not, will continue to search for knowledge. This point is simply for a specific people who do not want to seek more knowledge and not confined to just believers. People have a right for self interest for what moves them. If one chooses to block out certain knowledge because their interest is else where, that does not even constitute actual belief but intrigue. Therefore some may explore more narrower avenues then others. My opponent also takes lack of scientific knowledge for exposing belief as harmful. Should my opponent also say that because a doctor believes he knows how to perform a triple by-pass, we should not have belief that he can? Also we can take a look at all the beliefs that were true but denied and the people who pushed for the truths to be exposed. Should we say they should have not believed in their theory? My opponent fails to see that belief also has found solutions, cures, and philosophies, for society.3) Belief is the motivating force behind confirmation bias. My opponent brings up a hypothesis that was used for 2,000 years, yet useless, was not detrimental to the patients. This is less belief than a lack of knowledge. Many of the cures we have today are formed from beliefs in that cure. My opponents examples are more about lack of knowledge then just beliefs. If beliefs were that harmful as my opponent suggest then we would not have many of the things we have today we consider useful. 4) Belief can make us cruel. People can be cruel regardless of beliefs. The point is that if we did not believe that cruelty is harmful then we would not even be talking about it now. Only just beliefs can fight against harmful beliefs. As so in my opponents examples, people believed against the Inquisition, torturing and killing people and stopped it. To conclude we see that beliefs are essential and we rely on them for our everyday desicions. There are risks in beliefs, some are harmful, but most lead to the world we have today. To say that beliefs are dangerous and should be avoided is to say that our current world and its growth should be avoided also. I send it back to Pro. SOURCES: [1] . http://www.joe.ie... [2] . http://en.wikipedia.org... [3] . http://www.deakin.edu.au... [4] . http://www.apa.org... [5] . http://www.u21global.edu.sg... [6] . http://en.wikipedia.org...