199. Knowledge vs. Belief
Belief is a hot topic in today’s world. Believe that you can. Believe in this religion. Believe in others. A simple Google search will give you thousands of topics and articles on the topic of belief. Let’s just admit it: it is a sexy topic. Want to know what isn’t? Knowledge. Ugh. How boring is that? In fact, the very word takes us back to a science or World History class. However, because we have seen that 80% of the world often gets something wrong, let’s question this phenomenon. Let’s have knowledge compete against belief.
Because our Co-founder, Thom Shea, is a former Navy SEAL, let’s examine how the military deals with knowledge versus belief. Ready? It is a non-issue. That seems very anti-climactic. Maybe a rephrasing is in order. They don’t hold to beliefs. They want knowledge. The more knowledge and information they can have about a situation, the more lives are saved. Imagine, if you will, a Navy SEAL platoon leader reporting to higher-ups, that they “believe” the mission will be successful. A natural question would be, “How do you know?” Trust us when we say it wouldn’t be good for the platoon leader to reply, “We just do, sir.” They want knowledge and facts. Commanding officers need tactics, information about the enemy, timetables, etc. People’s lives are on the line.
In ordinary life, situations are rarely so dire. However, what we practice does affect our present and future decisions. How often have we just followed our beliefs without checking to see if they really work? Being seemingly established upon this, let’s talk about religion/faith. We know we are breaking the cardinal rule to never talk about politics or religion, but it is too prevalent to not bring it up. Before we dive into this controversial conversation, we want to preface that we aren’t trying to discredit religion, but rather shift some perspectives. In fact, it is a good possibility this conversation will help in your spiritual walk.
For the sake of time, let’s look a Christianity. Simply saying that belief can be dangerous will automatically get some people riled up. However, let’s take a glimpse at what the Bible really says. In Acts 17: 10-14, Luke, writing on behalf of Paul the Apostle, praises the Jewish community of Berea for expressing admiration that they were “examining the Scriptures daily” making them “more noble-minded than those in Thessalonica”. In other words, they didn’t merely choose to believe what they were told; they did the research and had knowledge of the truth.
In James 2:18, the author encourages believers to not simply have faith, but admonishes them by saying, “I will show you my faith by my works.” Simply having faith or belief without action or follow-up is a detriment to life. In fact, belief alone results in inaction. Any belief system worth its' salt will challenge you to test and prove what it says.
Go out and test it for yourself.
Show Notes:
4:30 - Don't over-leverage belief.
6:58 - Belief vs. Knowledge.
12:29 - Belief is the absence of experience.
15:00 - How do you train your children?
20:49 - What if you followed up on belief?
26:04 - Go out and learn it for yourself.
