Episode
Belief or Delusion
- Published
- Dec 17, 2025
- Duration seconds
- 212
- Processing state
not_requested- Canonical source
- https://iraterrycross.substack.com/p/belief-or-delusion
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Summary
“You can only believe in what you don’t know.” I’m sure you read that wrong the first time the same way I did. Or maybe it was just me. I first read that quote understanding it as “you can only believe in what you know”. Therefore thinking you have to know something in order to believe it. Therefore, you have to go forth and learn. After reading it again (and after writing a whole essay on it that I’ll release next week) I realize it is addressing the difference between belief and knowledge. If I believe something, it might be true. If I know something, it’s unshakeably true. A clearer way of understanding this is the following list of things people believe in: * Santa Claus * The Tooth Fairy * Stepping on a crack and breaking your mama’s back * Eating carrots gives you super vision * Religion All of these things have one thing in common no matter how you feel about them: we don’t have indisputable proof they are 100% for everyone. Some people will say there is plenty of proof for any and all of them. Some people will disagree with some or all of them. Meanwhile, I still eat carrots like a mad man and refuse to step on the spaces in a sidewalk to save the woman that gave birth to me from more pain that she’s already experiencing. Here are some things that people can’t argue and are therefore things we know: * 2+2=4 * Open things are not closed. * You are listening to me speak or reading words I wrote * Humans need to eat food and drink water to live * We live on planet Earth * Everyone who is alive will sadly die someday See what I mean? I’d love to hear someone argue how any of those things are not true. So back to our quote. Believing in what you don’t know means, you have no certainty in it. If you know something, you cannot believe it. Please don’t misunderstand wh…