Hell seems like a great example of a fake belief. If people actually anticipated being burned and tortured throughout eternity as a punishment for sinning, well, I can’t imagine them ever sinning. Let alone sinning as often as they do in practice.
I vaguely recall hearing that in the past, people actually believed in hell and accordingly were neurotic about doing everything they can to avoid sinning.
Heaven seems like another example for similar reasoning, although to less of an extent. I think magnitude to which people are drawn to eternal bliss is less than the magnitude for which they are drawn away from eternal torture.
This seems to point to a general category of beliefs necessary to prop up deontological ethics as possibly useful fake beliefs in that they help motivate you to follow norms (which are hopefully good norms).
Hell seems like a great example of a fake belief. If people actually anticipated being burned and tortured throughout eternity as a punishment for sinning, well, I can’t imagine them ever sinning. Let alone sinning as often as they do in practice.
I vaguely recall hearing that in the past, people actually believed in hell and accordingly were neurotic about doing everything they can to avoid sinning.
Heaven seems like another example for similar reasoning, although to less of an extent. I think magnitude to which people are drawn to eternal bliss is less than the magnitude for which they are drawn away from eternal torture.
This seems to point to a general category of beliefs necessary to prop up deontological ethics as possibly useful fake beliefs in that they help motivate you to follow norms (which are hopefully good norms).