Belief

Truth

Evidence and Belief

Nathanael Garrett Novosel, April 19 2023

Belief is discussed thoroughly in The Meaning of Life: A Guide to Finding Your Life’s Purpose. It discusses how a belief is anything that you accept as existing or true and how knowledge is a subset of beliefs that you can prove to be true. The problem is that—if you were getting technical—you can only truly know something (e.g., “Did I leave the...

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Suffering

Do People Need Religion?

Nathanael Garrett Novosel, December 14 2022

Religion is a difficult subject because of how it is tied to deeply held beliefs of the individual. Additionally, most people who analyze it are either making a case one way or another or are providing some sort of critique. (Note: I found this out the hard way for when I wrote that God was a great source of belief when someone doesn’t believe in...

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The Meaning of Life

Where Critical Thinking Can Be Incorrectly Applied in Your Life

Nathanael Garrett Novosel, December 7 2022

Critical thinking is an invaluable tool for testing information and determining what might be true as you make a decision or take an action in the real world. For example, you might be looking for a toaster on the internet and see one that is highly rated. Critical thinking would prompt you to ask yourself, “Is this really the best toaster, or is...

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Desire

Balancing Desire and Belief

Nathanael Garrett Novosel, November 23 2022

Most people know that you need to want something badly enough to drive forward and believe in yourself enough to continue through adversity. It is the main reason why people say, “Believe in yourself!” and, “It all comes down to who wants it more!” when trying to motivate people toward their goals. Many life philosophies, such as the Law of...

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Planning

The Value of an Internal Locus of Control

Nathanael Garrett Novosel, September 7 2022

There is a trend today that people not-so-affectionately call the “oppression Olympics” where people compete to see who can claim the most victimhood so that they achieve certain benefits such as more power, influence, and control over how others behave in relation to them (full disclosure: I come from a poor background and am guilty of trying to o...

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Emotions

Wanting and Feeling Good vs. Wanting and Feeling Bad

Nathanael Garrett Novosel, July 6 2022

Longing.  We all know the feeling: having a strong desire for something you can’t have.  But do you have to feel that way?  Let’s explore. I’ve been criticized in the past for stating what is basically common sense—of course, I’ve also had my brushes with people who vehemently oppose my “hot takes” (go figure).  One of those biggest hot takes come...

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Truth

If Your Beliefs Don’t Benefit You, Change Them

Nathanael Garrett Novosel, June 1 2022

A belief is anything that you assume to be true.  A subset of beliefs is knowledge, which are things that you know to be true because you have proven them in your reality.  Ideally, people want to bring their beliefs in line with reality to prevent harm, pain, and disappointment.  However, all beliefs that something is not possible when it actually...

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Suffering

You Can Raise Your Emotional State at Will

Nathanael Garrett Novosel, April 27 2022

Many people think that their emotional state is almost exclusively due to the reality that they are experiencing.  After all, basic biology and psychology teach the classic “stimulus-response” model in living organisms where a change in the environment will trigger a response in the affected creature.  This is mostly true, as life forms that did no...

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Ethics

Facts vs. Principles

Nathanael Garrett Novosel, March 30 2022

You're in a heated argument.  You have your list of facts and principles, and so does your adversary.  Who wins?  Clearly, you believe that you do almost every time.  Of course, your adversary thinks that he or she has won almost every time as well.  So who's right?  Well, it turns out that most people in arguments have already drawn conclusions an...

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Support

Life’s 8 Major Fallacies

Nathanael Garrett Novosel, January 5 2022

Mistakes People Make in Their Search for Meaning When people are looking for their meaning in life, they will have trouble finding it if they make erroneous assumptions about how life works or what they’re supposed to do with the one that they’ve been given.  Unfortunately, such fundamental assumptions are held sometimes without people having thoug...

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