When our kid was in 8th grade, after a full unit on comparative religions, a very subversive teacher asked the kids why they believed their specific religion*. The teacher led them through a discussion until the kids realized that they held their beliefs because their parents had taught them.
One student, though, said (paraphrasing): "I think EK would be an atheist regardless of what their parents taught them. They question everything."
This hits on what I consider to be the most important question:
Why do we believe what we believe?
If we had been born in a different place (e.g., Central African Republic, Indonesia) and/or different time (e.g., 400 BCE, 536 CE), would we have believed anything close to what we believe now?
There is, of course, no way to free ourselves entirely from the biases of our upbringing (or our human nature). But I think the best way to minimize our limitations is to regularly ask:
Do we believe anything that is not falsifiable?
[In the comments of the original post, a reader asked what I believed that is not falsifiable. There isn't much. I could be convinced that I live in a simulation, that there is a "god," that determinism isn't true, etc. My first take on what I believe that would be the hardest to falsify: Probably that Anne hasn't loved me during these past decades. Or, well, I could be convinced I'm in a simulation, and Anne is data being fed to my simulated consciousness. But short of that, I don't know how I could be convinced that she didn't love me. "Love," of course, just being evolutionarily-adaptive chemical reactions. She could, of course, cease loving me at some point in the future.]
This reminds me of when Bill Nye and creationist Ken Hamm shared a stage and were asked, "Is there anything that would change your mind?" Hamm answered, "No." Nye answered, "Evidence."
* The title chapter of TBTSNBN.
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