Love for a Belief

Lalit A Patel

Love for someone or something may be defined as the lover’s willingness to suffer or pay more than a normal trouble or price. Belief may be defined as a person’s long-lasting opinion that can affect the person’s behavior. Love for something intangible, love for something tangible, and love for someone (a living being) are like three sides of a triangle of love. These three sides are inter-related and mutually act as cause and effect. For example, a person’s love for a desire to impress others may lead the person to love money, and that in turn may incline the person to love a wealthy friend. Love for a belief, which is something intangible, forms one side of the triangle of love. For example, a missionary nun’s love for missionary beliefs (intangible) would make her love missionary estates (tangible) and people (living beings) being served through those missionaries. It is very important to understand the love for beliefs, because it influences love for others and it has many socio-economical implications.

A person can get into beliefs in various ways. Core beliefs are hereditary and passed on from one generation to the next one. Parents and grandparents play a very crucial role in nurturing these beliefs. When the two parents contradict on a belief, the belief of a child may fluctuate in time and is strongly influenced by outside forces. If the person’s personality is like a paper, the hereditary beliefs are like a logo at the top of the paper. Many beliefs are based on education. Teachers and educational literature play an important part in these beliefs. Due to a wide spectrum of teachers and educational literature, beliefs based on education are fuzzy rather than sharp. In the paper of a person’s personality, the education-based beliefs are like a dim picture in the background. Peers, work environments, and political or organizational affiliations have significant effects on the formation and formalization of beliefs. They affect many existing beliefs and moreover impart some additional beliefs.

People manifest their love for beliefs in many different ways. Love for core beliefs is shown up in the form of God-related ideas (atheism versus monotheism versus polytheism versus saint-ism versus principle-ism), marriage rituals (how and how often to get married), food tolerances (vegetarianism versus “meat-eater-ism” versus “rats-eater-ism” versus cannibalism), and social customs. Love for education-based beliefs is reflected in consumption habits, resources management, time management, management attitudes, speech accents, text fonts, and coding methods. Love for beliefs derived from peers, work, and affiliations affects tools selection (such as Windows versus Unix), dress codes, leadership capabilities, voting pattern, and construction attitudes (such as war versus peace).

Love for a belief profoundly affects one’s attitudes and interactions. If a wife believes that honey is money, she would stay with her husband in any bad financial conditions and help her husband get out of financial calamities. If, on the other hand, a wife believes that money is honey, she would live with her husband till he remains a millionaire and leave her husband the moment someone bangs on his or her door for money. Thus, love for a belief can make a marriage long-lasting or fast-crumbling. Some people believe in altruism. They are always willing to help others. They tend to accept or form friends, professions, and organizations that can let them help others. Many leaders and rulers who cared or care for the well-being of their citizens more than their own well-being fall in this category. People of quite opposite types believe in for-me-only-ism. They think that everything they like should be theirs. They tend to form gangs that steal or squander properties (and in the process make others’ lives miserable). Many leaders and rulers who cared or care for their own well-being more than the own well-being of their citizens fall in this category.

Love for beliefs of people can create or crush human civilizations. It becomes the guiding principle behind why wars are prevented or originated. Love for the belief that all of us are God’s children has led many religious leaders to constructive paths. Love for the belief that God is only for God-believers has led many para-religious leaders to destructive paths. There have been a few leaders who made their wild team members mild and prevented wars. On the other hand, there have been a few leaders who made their mild team members wild and ignited wars. There have been a few leaders who championed constructive activities and made friends out of enemies. On the other hand, there have been a few leaders who championed destructive activities and made enemies out of friends.

Love for a particular belief can be explained in neurological terms. Recent research studies have shown that left-brained people (whose left part of the brain is stronger than the right one) are inward-focused, whereas right-handed people are outward-focused. Extrapolating this finding, one can state that left-brained people love inward-focused beliefs, whereas right-brained people love outward-focused beliefs. A person’s beliefs govern and are cyclically governed by his or her thoughts. The person creates love maps for him or her to love tangible items compatible with his beliefs and love maps for him or her to love persons compatible with his or her beloved tangible items.

Love for a belief is indeed an interesting topic. It is very important from personal and social perspectives. It can explain many happenings around us.