Question on the nature of belief. [View All]

Can we agree that when someone believes something, that person has mentally concluded that something is an accurate reflection of reality. That is to say, if someone believes that Barrack Obama was born in Hawaii, it is not a matter of ethics or morality or philosophy, but rather the acceptance that when giving birth to her baby, Obama's mother was physically located on one of the Hawaiian islands. There is only one reality and if we are right, the birthers are 100% completely wrong. They do not have an equally valid belief about where Obama was born. We accept that saying that Hawaii is just a metaphor for the hope and promise of the future that a newborn brings dodges the issue. It would be like the "Yes, Virginia" letter: an evasion and non-answer disguised as an affirmation.

So, "I believe in X" means at minimum you accept the fact that X exists as a matter of objective reality. If we believe the sun is the center of the solar system, it means we think there is an actual star at the physical center of the planetary and other orbits. It excludes the possibility that the earth is the center of the solar system.

Now here is my point. If you believe in a god, at minimum you accept the existence of a god as an objective reality. The existence of a god excludes the possibility that there is no god. As a point of fact, you would be right and I would be wrong. Now, you may attach other beliefs to the declaration, "I believe in god," but at a minimum, a believer accepts as a fact that a supernatural being who fits the description of god actually exists. It does NOT mean that you think there are benefits to believing in god or that god is a metaphor for the physical universe or something else. It means that said god is simply a fact of life like gravity or plywood. If you believe in Jesus, that means at a minimum you except that Jesus once walked the earth.

So whether or not religion is good for society or bad for it and whether or not a lack of belief is good or harmful is irrelevant to whether or not god is real. If there is a god, then that is a fact regardless of its repercussions. If not, then THAT is a fact regardless of whether or not lack of belief caused Stalin.

Can we agree that this is what belief means?