Belief is more trouble than its worth. Belief is a mental state, it is confidence in the truth of something. There are good reasons for this confidence, and poor ones, but in either case, I ask what is this confidence worth? What is wrong with being unconfident about what's true? Do we really need certainty over just a best guess? Many tote that lack of belief makes us unable to act? But this seems to be a separate question. I can make what I judge to be the best decision with the information at hand without having to believe that it was the best decision. It may give me peace of mind to believe, a type of self-re-assurance, but again this calm is not worth the price; it makes fanaticism, both large and small, too easy.
The spiritual -- and I purposely distinguish that from religious -- form of belief has a valid argument. Belief -- or more accurately, faith -- becomes a means of mental transformation. Many, if not all, spiritual traditions teach some form of the power of thoughts over our conditions. Belief becomes a tool by which to transform negative thoughts without skepticism as to whether positive thoughts are "more true." By virtue of believing positive thoughts, positivity will manifest. But again, it seems we could practice positive thinking without belief; we only use belief in positive thoughts toward positive thinking because before we can get out of our habit of believing period, we need to change the object of our belief toward something more desirable. This parallels closely with the Buddhist science of karma, in which first one tries to build good karma, but eventually uses karma to undo karma itself entirely and reach nirvana. Furthermore, it shows that if the act of believing differently can change reality, then spiritual belief is not really belief, i.e. if we may practice believing to change our circumstance, this very fact means that believing with the idea that something in the world is true apart from the belief itself is untenable.
True spiritual belief, then, is not really belief, a fixated mental idea, but a process, a practice, and devotional. It can be applied beyond positive thinking, and I think is most appropriate when we speak of belief in God. The spiritual belief in God, or more properly devotion to God, is evolved in that it puts aside the question of some truth-value about God's existence and seeks to know God intimately, not as an object of study, what non-spiritual belief necessitates. To believe in God's existence is to limit God, but to abandon knowledge of God, to abandon belief, is to meet God face-to-face. It is no wonder that Krishna in the Gita puts devotion to God over wisdom of God, and why the zen koan states, "When you meet the Buddha, kill the Buddha."
At this juncture, someone could pose the argument, "But you yourself believe in the illegitimacy of belief; you can't escape belief." This retort has more to do with our habit of believing and understanding others in terms of beliefs than with some necessity about statement making. We can have a best guess on truth, without being arrogant to say enough that we believe it. Belief is arrogant much like the final court case in a long list of appeals: the evidence is all in, the decision is made, there is no more re-opening of the case. But reality just doesn't work this way. If we really want to understand truth, we have to see it as an open-ended, verdictless court case with new exhibits constantly submitted.
Maybe I've pigeon-holed belief, set up a straw-man version of the term. Can't we have beliefs that are always open to revision? Maybe, but then what work is the term "belief" doing? A better term might be "theory," and there is a reason why theories are talked about in science in place of beliefs, though I think science is equally guilty of some arrogant beliefs. I also don't think we need to exculpate "belief" from the english vocabulary either. They are plenty of times we collogquial use "belief" to mean the same thing as "my best guess." Again, an ordinary-usage argument may state, acknowledging the common use of "belief," I'm attacking a rarely used notion of the term. I guess on that question we all have to introspect, but I suspect that if many of us look at how belief functions in our lives, we'll find curmudgeon ideas recluse in our minds, irreverent to bangings on their door, whose persistence we exploit to help us keep confidence in a stable world. My love, Kelli, once told me I should try to stand next to the swing then always ride it, which I think is beautiful advice, and belief to me is the denial that the swing is moving at all. Belief puts our need for confidence in our best guesses over the importance of keeping those guesses under scrutiny. Whether that's true or not for you is your own best guess.
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