[Buddha-l] it's not about belief

[F.K. Lehman (F.K.L. Chit Hlaing)]

Moreover, agreeing in large part with Richard (mirabile dictu, aka 
'Wow!'), nothing is possible cognitively without the ability at least 
to hold, make use of or otherwise 'believe' (at least pro tempore) in 
things without evidence. Then we try to use such mental constructions 
as hypotheses accounting for various hunks of reality; and it is easy 
enough, until the arrival of the scientific/experimental method, to 
think we HAVE such evidence. E.g., even many respected physicist 
cosmologists retain an idea of 'God' (maybe only 'god') for all sorts 
of apparent reasons. This is inescapable, unless of course one is a 
believer (without evidence and in the teeth of Goedel's theorems) in 
the logical positivist nonsense according to which mechanical data 
processing will, if one waits long enough, produce Truth.
-- 
F. K. L. Chit Hlaing
Professor
Department of Anthropology
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign