The Power of Disbelief

What do you believe? Often, we think of our beliefs as fundamental parts of who we are, but not all beliefs are created equal. I believe the sun will rise tomorrow, and there’s not much that would change my mind about that. I also believe in the basic goodness of most human beings, but that belief gets tested and shaken everyday.

It’s rare that we can verify our beliefs directly. There’s nothing in my direct experience that can definitively prove even my most strongly held beliefs--that the earth is round, that my body is made of molecules, that the Seahawks should have handed off to Marshawn Lynch at the goal line in Super Bowl XLIX. Even in these certainties, I rely on the validity of other sources that I trust enough to serve as my proxy. 

In this way, belief is different from opinion, at least in our minds. We label something as opinion when we know that others may disagree with us, and we leave open the possibility that they’re right. To call something a belief is to endow it with a higher status. We can’t necessarily prove what we believe, but we aren’t really open to questioning it, at least not until we have a compelling reason to do so. That makes belief particularly tricky, because we tend to treat it as fact, when it’s actually just strongly held opinion.

These days, it’s smart to exercise a certain amount of disbelief. AI has made the unreal a part of our everyday reality. We can no longer trust even our own eyes and ears--much less what we hear on the news or from our leaders. Disbelief has become a fundamental part of our critical thinking, as our ability to deceive becomes ever more powerful.

But even in this age of fake news and deep fakes, I want to make the case for suspension of disbelief. Or maybe just modulation of disbelief. Yes, it’s important to maintain our skepticism as we search for the truth, but also our openness. It would be a mistake if, in our impulse to protect ourselves from deception, we closed ourselves off to new ideas, and new ways of seeing the world. Suspension of disbelief is often the portal through which art weedles its way into our minds. We need to know how to leave that portal open, so we don’t get closed off to the world.

Disbelief isn’t the opposite of belief--it’s the opposite of curiosity and receptivity. We need to know when to turn it on, and when to turn it off.