the truth

Beliefs are simply our description of reality. I include in my definition of beliefs both those kinds of things that we usually think of as the realm of religion, beliefs like whether God exists, or whether there's an afterlife, and also those things we think of as the realm of science, like the age of the earth. Religion actually has a lot to say about physical sciences, and history and anthropology, so beliefs are not limited to metaphysical questions. Some beliefs seem obvious, like "I believe that the earth is round." Other beliefs are less certain, "I believe that human beings have souls."

Beliefs are our description of reality, but we would like to claim that our beliefs are really objectively true and not just our opinion. But there's a philosophical problem inherent in making truth claims. All knowledge is interior knowledge, that is, knowledge for me, from my perspective. There is no objective vantage point where I can look at reality outside my own perception of it, and then compare that objective perspective to see whether my subjective perspective is an accurate copy. All knowledge is subjective. So definitive truth claims are hard to make. But that doesn't mean all beliefs are equally valid.

One way to shore up a truth claim is to examine your entire collection of beliefs for internal coherence. Does your belief about one thing, say the afterlife, fit with your beliefs about something else, say your belief about souls? An internally coherent set of beliefs could still be wrong, but an internally incoherent set of beliefs is certainly wrong because it would in fact be impossible.

Related to the test of internal coherence, is the need to give credence to our experience. If you have a belief that contradicts your normal, everyday, experience, then you should be prepared to give extraordinary evidence to back up that claim. Religious beliefs that deny free will, for instance, or that deny the reality of the physical world, should be taken with grave suspicion because they so obviously contradict our lived experience. These beleifs are incoherent, at least on the surface, because none of us actually lives as though our decisions we pre-determined, or as though the world didn't really exist.