What is a belief: explanations, examples

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:54

The word "belief" is often found in literature and cinema. Its meaning is clear. But it is sometimes difficult to explain in detail what a belief is. If you want to understand the issue, our article will help.

Let's look into the dictionary

The answer to the question of what belief is, the dictionary tells us. Modern sources give the following definition: "A belief is a folk legend, which is based on a belief in the connection between the fate of a person, random events and natural phenomena." Simply put, in the old days people had mystical ideas about the world, trying to see the signs from above in the surrounding reality. Our ancestors believed that attentive attention to these messages and their analysis can help to avoid danger, not to miss a happy chance, to insure against failure.

How popular beliefs appeared

Where did the belief come from that during a thunderstorm some god rides around the sky on a roaring chariot? It's simple: what a person could not explain with the help of the exact sciences was overgrown with legends and myths. What else could the roar of heaven seem to someone who did not have knowledge of physics?

Other beliefs were formed in a similar way. Some of them formed the basis of folk tales, signs, proverbs, legends andlegends.

Common synonyms

Modern sources not only suggest what belief is, but also list words that are similar in meaning. There are many synonymous words in Russian, but each of them has its own semantic load. For example, superstition is not just a belief, but a strong belief in a causal relationship between two events. The most striking example is spilled s alt, which certainly promises failure.

Myths, traditions and legends are also synonymous. But for the most part, they are narrative. Often they describe the origin of the world as a whole, as well as the emergence of certain customs, rituals, and traditions. Often in such beliefs, the forces of nature are personified, represented in human form, endowed with characters and fate. For example, in the worldview of the ancient Slavs, the Sky was a man, and the Earth was a woman, and all living things were once born from their love.

Believe in the modern world

Analyzing the dictionary interpretation, we can conclude that such a phenomenon as beliefs has lost its relevance. After all, modern man no longer looks frightened into the stormy sky, trying to see the wheels of the Thunderer? However, it is worth taking a closer look at the world around you, as you can see that not only ancient beliefs are alive in it, but new ones have also appeared.

There are many examples that show what belief is in the modern world. A huge number of beliefs exist in the student environment. Even such pragmatists and skeptics as doctors observe many certainrituals. For example, in the medical community there is a belief that wishing a good night in a hospital is a bad omen, the night will turn out to be just restless. People in dangerous professions or those with extreme hobbies often decorate their clothes and even their own skin with the image of death or a skull, believing that this will protect them from evil fate. And those who are afraid to inadvertently spill s alt or cross paths with a black cat are as numerous today as they were in the old days.