Habits and belief [CHAPTER — 2 : (Belief)]

Before acquainting the idea of ‘connection between Habit and Belief’, We have to understand what these words mean. In the previous chapter, we discussed in brief, what habits are and how they can be modified according to need. If you want to learn more about habits and their scientific basis you can read books like: ‘Atomic Habits’ by James Clear and ‘The Power of Habits’ by Charles Duhigg. Now, in this chapter we will discuss “what does the word ‘belief’ means?” We will also encounter some arguments against our main idea in the later part of this chapter.

The word ‘Belief’ has different definitions according to academic fields. sometimes belief is simply referred to ‘religion’ or ‘culture’ which one follows, in sociology. The ‘Belief’ itself is a broad chapter in Philosophy which can be a hard nut to crack for someone even from philosophical background. We will not go in depth of the definition but we will understand some concepts that will build better understanding with some examples. To make it lucid, we will take general definition and concepts which is interpreted by majority.

— ‘Beliefs’ are generally defined as convictions that things held in the mind are true.

Javed akhtar — an eminent script writer, lyricist and politician, contrasted belief with faith in a debate. He explained that faith is an extreme version of belief. He added that belief is something which is supported by evidence or logic while faith has no support of evidence/logic. he exclaims that belief is based on logic while faith does not have any logical base and if the logic behind any belief is wrong that belief would not be true. Listening to this debate may help you better understand the concept of belief, faith, and reason. There are many arguments raised against this interpretation by a noted spiritual guru Jaggi Wasudeva, famously known as ‘Sadhguru’. I suggest you to listen this debate.

Belief and Habit

A question arises “ Does the belief come from environment? ”There is much evidence that support the argument that belief comes from environment. For example, Religion is a collection of cultural systems, belief systems, and worldviews that relate humanity to spirituality and, sometimes, to moral values. It is not us who decides what religion we would follow. It is a conviction that a child will believe in the same religion that his ancestors have been believing from the ages.

Now one more question may arise —

“ Then what is the point of discussing belief and habits together, if belief depends on environment and environment is already discussed as a factor influencing the habit?”

And another argument may arise —

“Then what is the need of altering the belief, in order to altering the habit, if we can simply alter the environment.”

In next chapter we will present some evidence against this argument in order to support our main idea — ‘Belief and habit go on together and change in belief leads to change in habits without any influence of environment.’

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