Via Moyen Age, some musings about belief and the book Why We Believe What We Believe:

So what does it mean to say we construct “reality”? We don’t just willy-nilly dream up the sun everyday, do we? I suppose it’s a matter of bias, distortion, omission, focus. But it’s really difficult to pinpoint where beliefs end and “reality” begins.

Take the following statements:

• History accurately describes the past.
• Reality is more well-understood today than it was in the past. In the future, we’ll understand it even more clearly.
• Objective truth exists.
• The Qur’an | the Book of Mormon | the Book of Tobit | Exodus 21:20-21 is the holy word of God.
• We have free will.
• Causality is a universal principle (i.e., the turtles go all the way down).
• The universe | God is uncaused (i.e., the turtles don’t go all the way down).
• Animals aren’t conscious.
• Humans are more important than (other) animals.
• It’s important to “stay informed” by reading the NYTimes | watching Fox News | listening to Democracy Now!
• Ghosts exist.
• Unicorns exist.

Read more here.