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Constructing a Belief System
Here is the way to construct a personal belief system. You start with scientific method, and what you actually do believe is true, no matter how simple. My own approach was eclectic. I surveyed spiritual teachings without regard to what tradition they represented, and after a time began to notice what was consistent about them, that I intuitively confirmed. Then I said, “Okay. Those are probably true. I’m going to tentatively assume they are true, while keeping an open mind.”
It starts in some such way. Then, down the road, when you become convinced that something is true, you declare that you believe it, and factor it in. In one year’s time, you will see that your mind has integrated the new principle into your existing belief system, and reconciled all of the other elements with it, so that your system once more emerges in a coherent and unified form. By the same token, if a belief is outgrown, you factor it out, and in one year's time the system will re-integrate itself.
Your belief should represent your own truest opinion -- to say that you believe something else is untruthful. If a religion wants you to stand up and say with everyone else that you believe something you don't, simply do not say that. Cleanliness is next to Godliness, but truthfulness is Godliness.
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