A good friend recently told me some of her philosophy about spiritual beliefs. Basically, she believes that spiritual beliefs are not true or false, they are not even attempts to accurately describe reality - they are about influencing our lives for the better - that "pretending" (my word) something is true causes us to live differently, and if that difference is a good thing, that makes the belief useful, not true.
So if I take on the popular belief that we chose the life we were going to live before we were born, and chose to forget that knowledge, so we could learn the lessons of life - well, that belief has certain effects on how we live our lives, and in particular how we handle traumas or disasters - we no longer see ourselves as victims; it is the choice we made to go through things like this. I personally cannot accept this belief as true, and it angers me to think someone would believe I chose the abuse I went through as a child, but I can see the positive change in attitude that can be wrought by looking at life through this lens, and that could certainly be useful.
What a relief not to have to decide if a belief is literally true or not! Instead, I can look at how I can imagine the world in a way that enhances how I want to live life.
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