The Function of Belief

I read about a shepherd who qualified for the UPSC to become an IAS officer. As a student currently navigating similar path to attempt at a competitive exam, often paralyzed by trivial inconveniences like a messy desk or how mentally taxing it is to rot learn, this stopped me in my tracks.

I questioned what specific set of problems the shepherd faced. Did he not feel the discomfort of his environment? Did the lack of resources not register as pain? The answer is that he most probably has faced similar physical reality, but his psychological processing of that reality was fundamentally different.

He didn't ignore them because he was superhuman. He ignored them because his Belief in the outcome was so strong that the immediate physical discomfort became irrelevant. He was not operating on willpower; he was operating on a vision that rendered his present circumstances temporary.

This led me to a broader realization about how humanity functions on a macro scale.

Most of human existence on this planet is defined by struggle. It is a state of constant friction. From a logical perspective, enduring a life of misery with no guaranteed reward makes no sense. The system should collapse under the weight of its own suffering.

This is why the concept of Heaven exists not as a myth, but as a structural necessity.

The architects of history sages, prophets or anyone who must have understood how having a strong belief can keep one afloat must only then have introduced the concept of heavens to the commons. It promises that the friction of the present is merely the cost of entry for a frictionless future.

We cannot simply label our current reality as "Heaven" because the evidence of our senses contradicts it. We feel the struggle. We experience the misery. Therefore, we require a construct that lies beyond this reality to keep us moving through it.

The shepherd used the IAS exam as his "Heaven" a promised land that made the suffering of the pasture bearable. Civilization uses religion for the same purpose.

The conclusion is that Belief is not merely a spiritual comfort. It is a survival mechanism. It is the only force capable of convincing a human being to walk through a life of hardship without stopping.

But this begs the question: What about the ones who don’t believe?

What about the people who don’t buy into the concept of Heaven? Or, on a smaller scale, what about the students who don’t see the IAS or the Medical Seat as a "Promised Land"? What about the ones who look at the goal and just see a job, not a salvation?

If you remove the filter of "Belief," you are left with raw reality. You are left unprotected against the friction.

These are the people who feel the full weight of the messy desk. Without the anesthetic of a future paradise, every inconvenience registers as pain. They are walking barefoot on the gravel while the Believers are wearing boots.

Perhaps that is why so many burn out. It isn't a lack of discipline; it is a lack of delusion. When you see the world exactly as it is without the shiny filter of a "Heaven" waiting for you the struggle becomes a lot heavier to carry.

If belief is the anesthetic for the struggle, then the skeptic is not free they are simply unmedicated. A naked nerve exposed to the friction of the world where every minor chaos registers as major pain.