Sit

Sit. Contemplate. Pray?

I had always assumed that the act of "believing" was a cognitive function rather than an emotion or feeling. A quick flip of the dictionary this evening seems to suggest otherwise, with entries along the lines of "to have confidence or faith in the truth", "to have confidence in the assertions of a person" or "to have conviction that a person or thing is, has been, or will be engaged in a given action...". Although there was a saving grace entry which defined "believe" as "to suppose or assume; understand". Confidence, faith, conviction all do not sound like cognitive processes to me. Understand on the other hand requires comprehension and that is without doubt a purely cognitive process. Going by the dictionary score, I would think that "believe" suggests more emotion that cognition. I guess this does not matter very much when we are referring to "believing" or "believe" but what about when we are talking in terms of being a "believer". What does it mean to be a "believer"? Last night I was reminded of Aquinas' description of a right decision which is when the feeling and the will are aligned. Today I was reminder of Marcus Aurelius' Meditations Book 12. Tonight, I like to think that being a "believer" lies somewhere in between cognition and emotion. But who knows what new definitions tomorrow might bring.