Some beliefs affect our individual lives and the way we live them, the decisions we take and the goals we set for ourselves. Other beliefs though they seem at first to be fundamental, don't make two hoots of difference to our behavior.
Some beliefs which matter
The power of prayer, destiny, The existence of Good and Evil forces, Heaven and/or Hell, Karma, A belief in the Divine Right of a ruler, belief in an interventionist God, magic, that you are invulnerable, patriotism, that one race or group is superior/inferior to another, that mankind is basically good/evil, greed is good/bad, we should follow a set of divine rules.
Some beliefs which don't make any difference
Cosmology, the laws of Physics, evolution, determinism, that God created/did not create the universe, that a non-interventionist God does/does not exist, that we have an immortal soul but we don't remember anything of our past life.
"But the Solar System" I protested.
"What the deuce is it to me?" he interrupted impatiently, "you say that we go round the sun. If we went round the moon it would make not a pennyworth of difference to me or to my work".
A Study in Scarlet - Mr Sherlock Holmes. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
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