Richard Quinn<p><span class="h-card" translate="no"><a href="https://lile.cl/@adriano" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@<span>adriano</span></a></span> <span class="h-card" translate="no"><a href="https://autistics.life/@JeremyMallin" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@<span>JeremyMallin</span></a></span> </p><p>Yes 😀 We throw the word 'believe' around because it's a common term. But, for those of us for whom our basis is <a href="https://mastodon.world/tags/EmpiricalEvidence" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>EmpiricalEvidence</span></a> / <a href="https://mastodon.world/tags/LogicalReasoning" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>LogicalReasoning</span></a> , we should perhaps use a word like 'accept'. </p><p>I 'accept' the conclusions of science. </p><p>People do 'choose' to believe religion, in the same way that people choose to drink alcohol — it's comforting. </p><p>Similarly, people choose to accept the nonsense spouted by Farage or Trump — it appeals to their deep rooted prejudices.</p>