None of us are original thinkers . . .

Science -
Religion -
Politics -
Relationships -
it's all the same. We believe what we believe because of whom we choose to believe.
What are the sources for the building blocks of our belief system?



For most, it starts with what our parents contributed as we grew up. Early in a child's life today comes a massive exposure to high-tech media such as TV, movies and video games. School and church with its teachers and our peers contributed their input to our developing belief system.
Throughout the process we accept and reject conscience-molding beliefs, but what factors affect whom we choose to believe and whom we chose to reject? Personal identity is the primary factor in the choices we make. Most identify himself or herself as part of a group, community or organization, and we are motivated to seek comfort in conformity.
All through our lives we strive to find and live in a comfortable community. Most of us are born into a community, a family of a particular size and composition. Maybe one or two parents and other relatives. Maybe siblings in the beginning or coming along later. For most it’s comfortable and then, as we mature, comes our inevitable exposure to other individuals and communities. When we’re exposed to new people and circumstances we seek acceptance and a feeling of worth. Sometimes we find it, sometimes not, but all the while we’re constructing our personal belief system.
Crisis may enter our lives, shattering the stability with which we have sheltered ourselves, and the search begins again. The search for an impenetrable barrier to protect us from fear, uncertainty and doubt. As a last resort, some of us become a community of one.
We need to recognize that we each have a personal belief system that confines us to an intellectual box that determines how we receive and process "new" ideas. The catch phase of "thinking outside the box" is not a process that comes easily.
Do we have the power to modify or rebuild our belief systems?
Where would the motivation to do so come from?
Are our belief systems the result of our efforts or the result of outside influences?
Or is it simply as I began this article, "We believe what we believe because of whom we choose to believe."?
Let's examine what a belief system is, what are it's component parts and how it's constructed and modified. Perhaps considering some synonyms would be a first step to understanding the nature of such a system:
world view
principles
conscience
paradigm
standards

This article is a work in progress. Perhaps one that will never be finished.

... man always believes more readily that which he prefers ...
-- Francis Bacon

All seem to me to have a part of truth and a part of error and each espies the error of the other and fails to see his own.
-- Michael Servetus