Belief

“ Wherever the facts to be formulated contain such a contribution, we may logically, legitimately, and inexpugnably believe what we desire. The belief creates its verification. The thought becomes literally father to the fact, as the wish was father to the thought. [4]
Let us now turn to the radical question of life,—the question whether this be at bottom a moral or an unmoral universe,—and see whether the method of faith may legitimately have a place there. ”

“ Action will furnish belief,—but will that belief be the true one?
This is the point, you know. ”

“ Believe, and if thy belief be right, that insight which gradually transmutes faith into knowledge will be the reward of that belief. ”

“ Of One in whom persuasion and belief
Had ripened into faith, and faith become
A passionate intuition; ”

“ For it is nought else but a right understanding, with true belief, and sure trust, of our Being: that we are in God, and God in us. ”

“ The received manner of belief is first to examine the truths proposed as coming from God, measure them with the rule of individual reason, of expediency, feeling, fancy, and thus to decide upon their merits. ”

“ Were one asked to characterize the life of religion in the broadest and most general terms possible, one might say that it consists of the belief that there is an unseen order, and that our supreme good lies in harmoniously adjusting ourselves thereto. ”

“ It is not only in scripture that we meet with examples of the three words, to wit, belief, judgment, and faith, to stand for the marks of our ideas for the same thing, but also all intelligible writers and speakers apply these phrases synonymously, and it would be good grammar and sense, for us to say that we have faith in a universal providence, or that we judge that there is a universal providence. ”

“ Belief, that sacred faculty which prompts the decisions of our will, and knits into harmonious working all the compacted energies of our being, is ours not for ourselves, but for humanity. It is rightly used on truths which have been established by long experience and waiting toil, and which have stood in the fierce light of free and fearless questioning. Then it helps to bind men together, and to strengthen and direct their common action. It is desecrated when given to unproved and unquestioned statements, for the solace and private pleasure of the believer; ”

“ A little reflection will show us that every belief, even the simplest and most fundamental, goes beyond experience when regarded as a guide to our actions. ”

“ Our impulsive belief is here always what sets up the original body of truth, and our articulately verbalized philosophy is but its showy translation into formulas. The unreasoned and immediate assurance is the deep thing in us, the reasoned argument is but a surface exhibition. Instinct leads, intelligence does but follow. ”

“ What is believed, and the believing, must both consist of present occurrences in the believer, no matter what may be the objective of the belief. Suppose I believe, for example, "that Caesar crossed the Rubicon." The objective of my belief is an event which happened long ago, which I never saw and do not remember. ”

“ The history of the arts and the sciences, of society and of religion, specifically involves an account of the succession of beliefs and of the growth of belief-habits. The story of men’s doings is likewise, in large measure, a reflection of their beliefs; conduct, whether of individuals or of masses of men, remains an undeciphered record until interpreted as the concrete expression of definite beliefs. ”

“ "What of art?" she asked.
"It is a malady."
"Love?"
"An illusion."
"Religion?"
"The fashionable substitute for belief."
"You are a sceptic."
"Never! Scepticism is the beginning of faith."
"What are you?"
"To define is to limit." ”

“ Believe that life is worth living, and your belief will help create the fact. ”

“ But suppose one believes the affirmative of both 70 these questions, what is practical about such belief? If you hold to a notion that helps neither your faith nor your practice, why waste time with it? ”

“ For present-day purposes we may consider belief as characteristically of this type—complex in structure, subject to endlessly varying influences, modifiable by diverse factors and circumstances, responsive to social, hereditary, educational, and transitory as well as to more permanent, natural, and logical influences. ”

“ The fact, however, that we have almost to cast about in certain cases for an explanation of the established belief in the sacredness of human life, shows how deeply rooted that belief is unless where some counter-belief interferes with it. ”

“ This impression is so deeply engraven upon the inmost perceptions of the mind, and is so fully confirmed by the word of the Lord, and the dictates of reason, that it may justly be regarded as the general belief of mankind. ”

“ If belief consists in an emotional reaction of the entire man on an object, how can we believe at will? We cannot control our emotions. ”

“ It will be by means of a further definition of just these contrasted points of view that we shall be able to explain the relation between our belief in the physical world, and our belief in the minds of our fellow-men. ”

“ Belief in a general statement is an artifice of our mental constitution, whereby infinitely various sensations and groups of sensations are brought into connection with infinitely various actions and groups of actions. ”

“ What reason do my observations give me for believing that any other person has any particular perceptions or beliefs? I wish to consider which among the things which I observe will give such a reason. ”

“ Two characteristics they clearly disclose, a fearless integrity of heart and mind, and a dis- position to philosophize, underlying each of which is a constant purpose of self-improve- ment, and a more than accepted belief in a definite moral order, and the ultimate triumph of right. ”

“ What shall we say of that authority, more venerable and august than any individual witness, the time-honoured tradition of the human race? An atmosphere of beliefs and conceptions has been formed by the labours and struggles of our forefathers, which enables us to breathe amid the various and complex circumstances of our life. It is around and about us and within us; we cannot think except in the forms and processes of thought which it supplies. Is it possible to doubt and to test it? and if possible, is it right?
We shall find reason to answer that it is not only possible and right, but our bounden duty; ”

“ It results, then, from all that has been said,—first, that the existence of beliefs is the fundamental fact; and second, that beliefs which invariably exist are those which, both rationally and of necessity, we must adopt. ”

“ It is essential that what they claim appears to be in harmony with reason and with the Word of God. Even then their claims should be examined in a microscopic way; their beliefs compared with other beliefs ”

“ Belief in myself that I can know some Truth, and disbelief in myself that I can know all Truths, are the foundations of the true Christian liberality, the sources of all good wills and peaceful dealings with all mankind.^ Of course I was not converted to these healthy views in a day, but that our worthy Mrs. ”

“ An acquaintance with the original texts, and a willingness to give up beliefs founded on dynasties and the worst passions of men, for the advanced views of Christianity and the spiritual sense of Truth, makes the Scriptures a chart of Life to man. ”

“ Faith means belief in something concerning which doubt is still theoretically possible; ”

“ Thou must not deem it improbable that exalted divine traces should be visible in this material world, when this matter is prepared to receive them. Here are to be found the roots of faith as well as of unbelief. ”

“ but if the investigations of our previous chapters have not led us astray, we shall be compelled to renounce the hope of finding philosophical proofs of religious beliefs. ”

“ Religious phenomena are naturally arranged in two fundamental categories: beliefs and rites. The first are states of opinion, and consist in representations; the second are determined modes of action. ”

“ We are born believing. A man bears beliefs, as a tree bears apples. ”

“ You and I and all of us, all good, all evil, all truth, all falsehood, all things actual and possible, exist as they exist, and are known for what they are, in and to the absolute thought; are therefore all judged as to their real character at this everlasting throne of judgment. ”

“ As I attempt to answer this question, with an especial effort to show the relations of reason and religion, I shall be aided by reminding you at the outset that, at the present time, there is a widespread tendency to discredit the reason as a source of any notable insight into life or into the universe. And this tendency depends upon so defining the business of the reason as sharply to oppose, on the one hand, intuition and reason, and, on the other hand, reason and common-sense experience. ”

“ But I have indicated to you, in general, my grounds for holding that our previous sources actually do give us an insight which is not only moral but religious, and do throw light upon our relations to a reason which moves in all things, to a divine will which expresses itself in all the universe, and to a genuine revelation of its purposes which this makes of itself when it inspires our loyalty. ”

“ They are found in the charities of religion—in the philosophy of nature—in the truth of history—and in the experience of common life; and whoever ventures rashly to depart from them, let him remember that it will be meted to him in the same measure, and that both God and man will judge him according. ”

“ I have shewn you that many of our deepest and most vital convictions are based less upon Reason than upon Imagination. Why then should we be surprised if the most profound convictions of all, our religious certainties, rest upon that imaginative desire to which we have given the name of Faith? ”

“ When reason once recognizes right and wrong, it exhibits wisdom; when wisdom chooses between right and wrong, truth and error, it demonstrates spirit leading. And thus are the functions of mind, soul, and spirit ever closely united and functionally interassociated. Reason deals with factual knowledge; wisdom, with philosophy and revelation; faith, with living spiritual experience. Through truth man attains beauty and by spiritual love ascends to goodness. ”

“ Moral and spiritual faculties are of no less importance in their respective spheres even of everyday life; faith, trust, taste, &c., are as needful in ascertaining truth as to character, beauty, &c., as is reason. ”

“ But the universal form in which any opinion comes to your consciousness, and gets its definition for your own mind, is this form of an appeal to an insight that is superior in grasp, in unity, in coherence, in reasonableness to your momentary insight. ”

“ And this is my purpose when I use my philosophy merely to illustrate the office of reason. For indispensable as individual religious experience is, in all the capriciousness of its feelings--indispensable also as social religious experience is, with all its insistence upon human love and also upon human religious convention--the synthetic use of the reason, that is, the systematic effort "to see life steadily and see it whole," is also indispensable. ”

“ All the ideas, cogitations, and labors of man are circumscribed by and incorporated in this great principle of life.
When we duly reflect upon the cogitations of our own minds, when we look upon the people called Latter-day Saints, upon the earth on which we stand, and upon the mighty universe around us, by the light of the Spirit of truth in our minds, we marvel with astonishment. ”

“ We are meeting dogmatism and superstition, not with impatience, but with truth. We are meeting sin and injustice, not with abuse, but with good-will and high idealism. We have the right message for our time. ”

“ So much has this baleful flagitiousness of teaching for many centuries that Faith is superior to and independent of Reason done to dwarf and distort the mental and moral perceptions of the noblest and ablest among us! ”