Nir Eyal

Faith is a conviction that does not require evidence.

So God rewards the righteous.

That's a matter of faith.

Now in between facts and faith lies a belief.

A belief is a conviction that is open to revision based on new evidence.

And that's something new.

And that's something I think we don't think about enough.

That unfortunately,

I think that most of our interpersonal, our problems with relationships, the difficulties we struggle with on our own, even our geopolitical problems come from this unfortunate state of affairs that too many of us have this conviction that our faith is a fact and that what we think are facts are nothing more than beliefs.

Absolutely.

And look, one of the things that I hate hearing is science says.

Science doesn't say anything.

Science gives us evidence that we have to consider, see if it replicates, consider new evidence as it comes in.

We're always collecting new evidence and then determining what we think is a fact.

But the thing is, most of the decisions we make in day-to-day life, they're not based on facts.

They're based on beliefs.

Should I take this job?

Should I marry this person?

Should I go into business with that person?

Should I move here?