When I first read this post, I was already aware that “I believe in X” could mean either “I believe X exists” or “I support X”. I reacted to this by mentally translating “believe in” to “support” to remove the ambiguity.
It is not hard to see where this bucket error comes from. It comes from religious faith. The Apostle’s Creed begins “Credo in Deum Patrem omnipotentem” which translates to “I believe in God the Father almighty”. Here “belief in existence” and “support” are collapsed into a single concept.
I believe in God, the Father almighty, Creator of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord, ...
I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and life everlasting.
I do not like this post’s implicit assumption that we should keep the bucket error and continue to use “believing in”. Why not use more precise words? Possible alternatives: • support • trust • love • hold dear
But if we are going to keep a phrase with religious overtones, why not go all the way? Use “worship”.
Instead of ”I believe in the Democratic Party” say ”I worship the Democratic Party”
Instead of “Around here, we believe in being on time” say ”Around here, we worship being on time”
As in,
Around here, we worship being on time. Your lateness just now was blasphemy. Do not blaspheme again, heretic, or we shall cast you into outer darkness and you will need to find a new place of employment.
There is a refreshing honesty to “worship” that makes it less memetically dangerous. It is clear that one is engaged in a fundamentally different activity than constructing accurate models of reality.
(Although, if you are reading this, it is likely that “constructing accurate models of reality” ranks high on the list of things that you worship.)
When I first read this post, I was already aware that “I believe in X” could mean either “I believe X exists” or “I support X”. I reacted to this by mentally translating “believe in” to “support” to remove the ambiguity.
It is not hard to see where this bucket error comes from. It comes from religious faith. The Apostle’s Creed begins “Credo in Deum Patrem omnipotentem” which translates to “I believe in God the Father almighty”. Here “belief in existence” and “support” are collapsed into a single concept.
I do not like this post’s implicit assumption that we should keep the bucket error and continue to use “believing in”. Why not use more precise words? Possible alternatives:
• support
• trust
• love
• hold dear
But if we are going to keep a phrase with religious overtones, why not go all the way? Use “worship”.
Instead of
”I believe in the Democratic Party”
say
”I worship the Democratic Party”
Instead of
“Around here, we believe in being on time”
say
”Around here, we worship being on time”
As in,
There is a refreshing honesty to “worship” that makes it less memetically dangerous. It is clear that one is engaged in a fundamentally different activity than constructing accurate models of reality.
(Although, if you are reading this, it is likely that “constructing accurate models of reality” ranks high on the list of things that you worship.)