What does it mean to say that you believe something? It means that you accept a proposition as true. But so what? Who cares what you think is true or not? No one cares, necessarily, unless you can provide good reasons to think that it is true - reasons which, therefore, become reasons why others should think it is true. Without such reasons, statements of belief are meaningless.

In Why Atheism?, George Smith writes:

It is the assumption that a believer can justify his cognitive beliefs that commands the attention of other people. If I say that I believe in the existence of God while making no effort to justify this belief, I have merely reported on my subjective state of mind; and this psychological report, though it may be of interest to me and my friends, has no cognitive value. It is like saying, “I feel lucky today.” If this is how I feel, good for me, but this feeling alone can oblige no one else to think or act differently than they would otherwise. [...]

If you want your beliefs to be taken seriously by others, then you must present them as something more than personal notations on your state of mind. It is only by giving reasons that you can free your beliefs from the bonds of subjectivity and earn the respect that comes from objectivity. A belief becomes objective when it is justified with reasons that can be examined and evaluated by others.

Speaking personally to all of the religious believers out there who assume some sort of holy obligation to save me and to explain to me why I am wrong, I frankly don’t much care what you believe. I accept in advance that you believe certain things, that you believe them sincerely, and that these beliefs are very important in your life. So what? Why assume that there is any particular reason that I would care?

I don’t — at least, I don’t care so long as you are only interested in stating what you believe, that you believe, and that your beliefs are important to you. If you have nothing else to say, then you have nothing of importance to say to me. I may care about your beliefs if and only if you are able to articulate logical, rational reasons for your beliefs.

If you are able and willing to try to justify your belief through logical arguments and empirical evidence, than I may be interested because such argument and evidence, in addition to compelling your own belief, might possibly compel my own. I am interested in arguments and evidence which lead to true, justified beliefs about the world around us. Mere assertions about the world around us, however, are of no interest to me whatsoever — just as you shouldn’t be interested if I were to write to you with a list of assertions but not include reasons to accept them.

You think you know the truth? Well, you can’t claim to know the truth unless you can articulate reasons for thinking that your claims are true. Without good reasons that can be examined and evaluated, you might as well be guessing or flipping a coin in the air.

 

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