by everending

Created on: January 12, 2009

Value is an action. I value friends, I value family. I value love, I value knowledge. I value simpler things too; I value a relaxing walk in the park, a day on the beach, a neighborhood dog. Valuing is an expression.

Belief, on the other hand, does not have to be an action. It's an emotional mindset, an intellectual experience. If I believe in God, believe in the future, believe in my children, or believe a friend is wrong, I can take peace in that belief and rest.

I can believe you're wrong without acting on it. But if I value my opinion, I will surely express it.

Beliefs are what we base our values on. We believe certain broad ideals, and from those beliefs, we fashion our values. Values are closer to the objects we love; they're not distanced by time or space. They interact daily with our words, our thoughts, our behaviors. Beliefs, however, while important, take a back seat to day to day behavior. They govern instead the overall arch of our lives. In a way, they govern our destinies. They govern our future while values govern our present.

And because values can change much quicker than beliefs, they are far more personal. We believe long before we value. We believe in God, in Santa Clause, in our parents or the Easter Bunny. We believe from such a young age because we copy the beliefs of others. We believe long before we can learn to value, because a large portion of valuing is understanding the transitoriness of life, the limits of human existence and the necessity of meaning.

We're born amoral. We're born without the ability to distinguish between right and wrong. We can believe, but we can't always defend the source of these beliefs. As children, we may say we value our toys, but all we know of valuing is enjoying, and value is a far deeper virtue. With maturity comes morality, and without morality, the ability to embrace values. We can believe from birth, because we have faith from birth. If anything, the ability to believe can fade with time. It can die with innocence, with those of us who grow jaded with the years.

We can't really believe in nothingness, but we can value nothingness. We can value even in the face of an existential vacuum, even if we've lost all semblance of belief. We can even value death if we want to.

In the end, personal beliefs are silent, sometimes absent. But if they are absent, they don't really leave a void. But values are a source of connection an interaction. They are rarely absent. Even valuing nothing is valuing something.

But an amoral individual is far more dangerous than an immoral individual.

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