Process:

idea > belief > knowing.

One cannot 'believe' something if they already 'know' it. It's simple definition. However, a true philosopher that has bridged the gap, in their own mind, with spirituality would also say that we never truly know anything, everything is subjective and therefore merely a belief. Even with that, knowing would come after belief, not before... never before.

As for spirituality, reading may be good, but going within, dropping every preconceived notion and belief that you have, then questioning everything you think you know, you will find your answer. There are no answers to any questions of substance, that we do not already know ourselves.

Ok I had this big long post made out and in the end the power went out and my post went down the drain

In a nut shell I did make a fallacy in saying belief comes after knowing, I should have known better but I made the fallacy on there

On Spirituality, I have so far only made little strides, I haven't really been excitable by the idea of spirituality as a whole quite yet, but there are certain ideas that I can agree with and do tend to live by.

"Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many. Do not believe in anything simply because it is found written in your religious books. Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders. Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations. But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it.”
~Buddha quotes (Hindu Prince Gautama Siddharta, the founder of Buddhism, 563-483 B.C.)

It must be the season, or the month, I dunno, but either way it's been a year since this thread was tackled and I have to profess that my mind has been gravitating more toward this subject again.

I love the Buddha quote you posted which is summed up with one from Aristotle: "It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it." Now in this quote, and in my own humble opinion, Aristotle overlooks the fact that our minds can entertain many thoughts without accepting a single one because our lack of education on the subjected thought could cause us to dismiss it. One need not be educated to entertain a thought and let it go, in other words.

Back to the origins of this thread.... our own lack of knowledge. I do agree that our knowledge can get in the way of a great many things in our lives. We start living based upon the knowledge we have and less on our 'gut instincts' so to say. Which brings me back to..... why am I driven to climb a tree while others are driven to stay on the ground? DNA? *shrugs* I suppose that could be an easy answer. But where was the DNA in the first beings? *shakes head* And no... I am not going to revert to the Adam and Eve story, for anyone that wishes to start spouting off Christianity.... it's a story and no one knows for a fact that story ever happened. Anyway, I digressed.....

I recently wrote a post about the 'void' and due to a response in it I was led back to some philosophical discussions I had several years ago about 'thought', that first 'thought' that creates the next action, which will inevitably cause all other actions that follow to be somewhat predetermined. Upon getting ready to start that thread, I ran across this one and read every post in it again. It's the same thing your author was eluding to, yet he was driven by the force of proving something invalid instead of simply seeking that true question of ignorance..... if we know nothing and yet have everything right before us.... what is it that we would do? I agree that religion would 'not' be the first thing on our minds. Actually it's only on my mind when I am also trying to disprove it. So in the case of what your author was trying to get at, Watari..... I agree that our primal instincts would kick in, not religion, which is solely based upon beliefs that we would not have if we woke up ignorant of all things in our surroundings.