# Episode 121: Beliefs

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-theory-of-anything-859886/episode-121-beliefs
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-theory-of-anything-859886/episode-121-beliefs.md
Podcast: [The Theory of Anything](https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-theory-of-anything-859886)
Published: 2025-11-18T12:00:00+00:00
Episode link: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/four-strands/episodes/Episode-121-Beliefs-e3a1di7
Audio file: https://anchor.fm/s/14b6fc10/podcast/play/110195719/https%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fstaging%2F2025-9-25%2F9c8ea9bb-6eb1-c58a-280c-25c67eae2bf9.mp3
Processing state: processed
JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-theory-of-anything-859886/episodes/episode-121-beliefs
Duration seconds: 9806

## Resource

In our previous episode covering Strevens' critique of Popper, we briefly touched on why Bruce believes it it a mistake for CritRats to say they don't believe in beliefs. This time Bruce takes a deep dive into beliefs -- and walks back his previous statement a bit. Do humans need beliefs? Are beliefs dangerous? What is the critical rationalist position on beliefs? What did Popper say? And can we even realistically live without beliefs? And along the way, Bruce criticizes "the disobedience criteria" as a way to make his point about the value -- and dangers -- of mythic belief systems and why we need them and why they can confuse us rationally. ⁠Support us on Patreon

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## Transcript

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