THE PSEUDO-EPISTEMOLOGY OF BELIEF: HOW EARLY CHRISTIANITY BIRTHED FACEBOOK AND WHAT AYAHUASCA AND PSILOCYBIN HAVE TO SAY ABOUT IT

John P. Davidson

Copyright 2021

The events of recent years brought belief into focus, demonstrating how persuasive, pervasive, diverse and resilient belief can be. The emerging issue of how to deal with belief in false narratives is also bringing to light the very question of what “belief” is and how we got here.

One place to start looking for an answer is history. Where to look? Follow the money is always a good rule. Facebook wasn’t the first to exploit the disingenuous power of belief on a large scale. That model was invented almost two thousand years ago with demonstrated and devastating success.

To start, its helpful to focus not on what people believe, but that they believe at all, and how belief has crowded out humanity’s most important source of knowledge.

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One fish says to another fish: “Have you heard of that thing called water?”

The other fish says: “No, what do you mean?”

“Follow me,” the first fish says, and swims rapidly toward the shore. Both fish pop out of the water and land on the sandy beach.

“That was the water,” says the first fish.

The fish story is most often told to illustrate that consciousness is distinct from its content, and that we…