Tag Archives: Belief

Don’t Be Misled by Biased News

Posted on October 6, 2020 by N.S. Palmer

Note: With a presidential election coming up, the news media are full of misleading headlines, biased reporting, and less often, outright lies. Here’s how to avoid some of the most common traps. (Originally posted on my other blog in 2018.) … Continue reading →

Posted in Psychology | Tagged Belief, Bias, Fake news, News Media, Propaganda, Rationality | 2 Comments

Why Beliefs Divide Us

Posted on June 25, 2020 by N.S. Palmer

Why do beliefs divide us? This will sound like a joke, but it’s the truth: Beliefs divide us because it’s part of their job. We usually think of beliefs simply as being about facts: Two plus two equals four. Flowers … Continue reading →

Posted in Christianity, Philosophy, Political Science, Psychology, Society | Tagged Belief, Civil conflict, Civil religion, Dogma, Group beliefs, Group identity, Group membership, In-Group, Mass Hysteria, Mass movements, Out-Group, Race riots, Religion, Woke | 2 Comments

What’s Your Choice?

Posted on September 12, 2019 by N.S. Palmer

Some people might get mad at me for saying this, but I’m against kicking puppies. I’m also against being mean to children and old people. I like democracy but I agree with Winston Churchill that “it’s the worst form of … Continue reading →

Posted in Human Relations, Life, Psychology, Society | Tagged Belief, Choice, Decline of violence, Evolutionary Psychology, Existential choice, Foundations of morality, Genetic influences on belief, Group beliefs, Moral Choice, Morality, Retributive justice, Steven Pinker, The Better Angels of Our Nature | 2 Comments

Believe in the Future

Posted on August 21, 2019 by N.S. Palmer

Many people dismiss faith as “believing what you know isn’t true.” But that’s wrong. At its most helpful, faith is believing what might be true: We will be alive tomorrow. The future can be good. Life has meaning and purpose. … Continue reading →

Posted in Bible, Life, Psychology | Tagged Belief, Believe, Confidence, Faith, Hope, Moral order, Optimism, Set an example, Trust in God, Trust in the future, William James | 2 Comments

Do You Want to Believe?

Posted on November 21, 2016 by N.S. Palmer

My latest blog post for The Jewish Journal: After a bitterly divisive election season, there’s one question on everyone’s mind: “How can people possibly believe that?” What “that” is depends on who’s doing the talking. It means one thing to … Continue reading →

Posted in Judaism, Philosophy, The Jewish Journal | Tagged Belief, Debate, Disagreement, Election, Jonathan Haidt, Politics, Psychology, Sociology of Belief, The Righteous Mind, WEIRD values | 1 Comment

The UNESCO Vote Mystery

Posted on October 17, 2016 by N.S. Palmer

My latest blog post for The Jewish Journal: There’s a mystery about UNESCO’s denial last week of Jewish connections to the Temple Mount and the Western Wall in Jerusalem. The mystery is not that the resolution was proposed by some … Continue reading →

Posted in Judaism | Tagged Belief, Cognitive Science, Confirmation Bias, Conflict of belief, Epistemology, Hilary Putnam, Israel, Jerusalem, Memes, Propaganda, Temple Mount, UNESCO, Western Wall | 1 Comment

Knowing What Time It Is

Posted on February 21, 2016 by N.S. Palmer

My latest blog post for The Jerusalem Post: Do you know what time it is? If I asked you that question, there are two logical answers and many non-logical answers. If you know what time it is, then the logical … Continue reading →

Posted in Epistemology, Jewish Philosophy, Judaism, Philosophy, The Jerusalem Post | Tagged Belief, Enlightenment philosophy, Epistemology, Ethics of Belief, Halacha, Jewish Philosophy, Moses Mendelssohn, Sociology of Belief, speech acts, Theory of meaning, Theory of truth | Leave a comment

Orthodoxy, Truth, and Half-Belief

Posted on November 26, 2015 by N.S. Palmer

My new blog post for The Jerusalem Post: People who have a secular worldview often wonder how Orthodox Jews can believe what they do: for example, that the Torah is literally true, that God commanded all the mitzvot, or that the … Continue reading →

Posted in Jewish Philosophy, Judaism, Modern Orthodoxy, Philosophy, The Jerusalem Post | Tagged Belief, Epistemology, H.H Price, Jerusalem Post, Jewish tradition, Modern Orthodoxy, Orthodoxy, Religion and Science, Theory of truth | Leave a comment

Costs, Benefits, and Beliefs

Posted on October 24, 2015 by N.S. Palmer

By N.S. Palmer I’m puzzled. No worries. It’s my normal state. I’m revising the draft of my book Belief, Truth, and Torah. I want to make it engage more fully with arguments from one of our professors at Hebrew College, … Continue reading →

Posted in Jewish Philosophy, Judaism, Modern Orthodoxy, Philosophy | Tagged Belief, Epistemic Justification, Epistemology, Ethics of Belief, Orthodox Judaism, Psychology of Belief, Solomon Schimmel, The Tenacity of Unreasonable Beliefs, Torah | Leave a comment

Maimonides and Keeping the Commandments

Posted on August 5, 2015 by N.S. Palmer

By N.S. Palmer “God rewards those who perform the commandments of the Torah and punishes those who transgress its admonitions.”1 The Jewish sage Maimonides called that an essential tenet of our faith. But there’s something a little odd about it. … Continue reading →