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Neuroscience & Karma
either analytic propositions, such as “2 + 2 = 4" or synthetic ones such as that "the sun will rise in the morning." Thus beliefs are essential to all reasoning but they are not achieved by reason. They are, quite simply, the result of the trusting capacity of the human brain, which allows the individual to build up programs that use such beliefs. Of course, it is hard to know just how much of any particular belief is due to training and how much to heredity. But the basic capacity to believe is essential to the functioning of every individual, and, like the capacity to speak, it must have a fundamental inberited background.
The capacity to believe includes much more than religious belief. Belief is necessary to accept the fundamental concepts upon which all logical discourse depends. Acquisition of knowledge in the human's rational way depends on the capacity to recognize certain logical truths. For example, we know what is meant by asking a question and giving an answer. Then we must agree about the nature of truth and falsehood, equality and difference, the meaning of `more' and 'less', 'before' and ‘after', and many more such relationships. In fact, we have to bave faith in the intelligibility of discourse, capacity to learn. The capacity for believing is a mode of operating that is not learned by experience. Of course, this does not mean that a baby is born with any particular system of logic or of religious belief, but that its brain will develop a power to operate with complete reliance on certain concepts. Without the capacity to believe, it could not function at all. The development and construction of the whole human brain-model depends upon this capacity to accept or have faith in certain fundamental methods of operating. Animals do not believe either in logic or in God. As Bertrand Russell said, 'believing seems the most "mental" thing we do'.
We all need belief where knowledge fails us. But it is degrading to continue to use detailed beliefs that have become inconsistent with knowledge. 2. The Function of Belief
To fulfill their tasks, beliefs have to assist the individual through all the difficult phases of life. The individual has to face a very wide
