IB DIPLOMA
THEORY OF KNOWLEDGE
10. Belief has been described as "certainty about what cannot be seen". Does this statement hold true in any, some or all areas of knowledge?
My mother used to tell me stories which I assumed to be true as she said so. Only later did I learn that they were fairy tales. As a child, my belief was influenced by my parents. As a student, belief altered to concepts and facts taught in books, by professors and my ways of interpretation. This implies that belief can be what an individual feels to be correct or is taught to be correct. Certainty of what cannot be seen is an apt description for belief in many circumstances.
When a child believes in ghost stories, he has never actually witnessed a phantom as such but yet is scared of it and believes in the existence of one. When a person is superstitious, lets say in the example of black cats which are supposed to be unlucky1, the person might not have undergone an unlucky experience to strenghten his belief or anything as such, but still will not cross the path which the black cat passed.2 A person's emotions causes them to believe in such matters and thus many people believe in ghosts and other supernatural elements.3
Belief being a certainty about what cannot be seen can be held partly true in the areas of natural sciences, for example,scientists belive in the existence of extra terrestrials and aliens even though they have never seen one4. This again is based on a hypothesis that if humans can exist, why not other beings? Scientists still continue to search for extra terrestrials5 and are building instruments to detect signals from them6.This shows that if a person did not have a belief or a perspective, ones ideas would be limited. They also believe in this theory as some scientists claim to have seen UFO's7. This shows how science effects the thoughts of people and their beliefs since I personally have no proof to whether this is a hypothesis or real but I believe it as a...