BELIEVE SOMETHING. BE SOMETHING.

We are our beliefs. A prevalent misconception says that believing something is the same as thinking it is true. Those are two parts of the same process, granted, but at opposite ends. You can think a roller coaster is safe and worth riding yet be too scared to get on it. If, however, you believe it’s safe and worthwhile, you won’t miss the opportunity to ride it. Thinking something is true is a statistical evaluation. You’re saying that, based on the information you have, the notion has better odds of being true than false. Believing is conforming your life—your values, perceptions, and behaviors—to the notion.

Ideally, we should believe everything that we think is true and refine those beliefs as we acquire new information. That’s not how it works for us humans, though. Believing is a process, often a difficult one. The process starts when we think something is true. Then we decide that we want to believe it and adjust our values to align with it. Then we believe in part, judging our perceptions and behaviors by those refined values. Finally, we conform our lives to our new view of reality; finally, we believe.

We rarely make it to the end of the process. We rarely get past the first step. Most people think that they should spend more time with their families, read more, or practice a hobby. That’s what they think but not what they believe. Their apathy shows what they actually believe: that it’s better to waste that time watching shows and movies. It’s easy to believe in the path of least resistance. It’s easy to believe that our actions don’t matter or that it’s okay to waste one more day. It’s hard to believe that who we will be tomorrow is shaped by our decisions today or that our everyday interactions can help or hurt others for years to come. It’s hard to believe the truth.

Mr. Example will illustrate the process of belief. He thinks diverse opinions are the strength of democracies and people have a right to express differing opinions. Nonetheless, he treats anyone who disagrees with him like an idiot or a villain. One day, Example realizes that his behavior doesn’t match his view of reality, and he decides that he wants to actually believe that view. So, he forces himself to interact respectfully with people who disagree with him, even though he still sees them as idiots and villains. At this point, Example believes in part; he has conformed his actions to what he thinks is true but not yet his attitudes. At some point, he believes fully: his prior conduct seems childish to him, he can talk to people without feeling threatened, and he can understand why they espouse views different from his.

Most people who claim to believe in a religion are actually saying that they think the religion is true. If they believed it they would embody its tenets. If you believe God is perfectly good, for example, you will attempt to follow God’s perfectly good will. People aren’t truly members of a religion unless they truly represent it.

To believe something is to become something. If you believe that you should get in shape, you become someone who exercises. If you believe that you need to know all you can about history, you become a student of history. If you believe that you must sacrifice a cat on an altar every Thursday, you become a cat killer. That’s how it works.