Using the word "believe" wrong...

[maestroanth]

I just wonder if people feel as I do about this. Usually when I talk to people about religion/science, they throw the word believe around haphazardly. I.e. "I believe in x because of y" without giving sincere thought about the word "believe". And how this y-variable should have a great impact on whether you're using the word correctly.... (And usually with most morons out there, this y-variable consists of very subjective things either thrusted onto them by social groups, indoctrination, or my favorite pet peeve, because "they want to")

To me, this greatly undermines the integrity that this word should represent. Wanting to believe something is true because you'd like it to be true has no bearing on it actually being true! To sincerely believe in something, as how I feel this word should be explicitly used, the reasoning has to be completely independent of one's motivations and dependent on objective observations that many people can experience with the senses and derive the same conclusions if they're all rational....(ya, a big IF, lol)

Otherwise, when people say I believe in "Jesus" or Wicca or astrology or superstitions, etc., they should really consider replacing the word "believe" (because it's an incorrect usage of the word) with the phrase, "I would like for x to be true because I think Jesus is great". - Doesn't that make much better sense than saying like, " I believe in Jesus as truth because I think he's great"? I mean with the latter, that reason makes no fricken sense; while with the former, that statement doesn't require that reason to make sense.

I ranted this because to me, the word ought to imply a sense of reality to it. And if you cannot meet that demand for reality, then you need to find or invent a different word for what you're trying to express. A correct usage of this word could potentially eliminate much conflict in this world......