To 'suspend disbelief', is to push past knowledge of what you believe is true or not and temporarily believe in something contradictory to your knowledge. In theatre, 'the willing suspension of disbelief' is demonstrated by the audience when watching a play. The audience know that part of the performance they are watching is in reality fiction, however in order to enjoy and gain full theatrical experience, enabling them to feel that what they are seeing is a reality. The audience member gains empathy towards the characters. An example of audiences 'suspending disbelief' can be seen in Shakespeare's plays. In Macbeth the performance consists of actors on stage with little scenery used. Suspension of disbelief is key to maintain over the duration of watching Macbeth, enabling the audience to enter the action of the play. Furthermore witchcraft, the supernatural and magic are present audiences allow a belief in these to gain full experience and an emotional connection to the characters and the play. In order to be entertained, gain empathy towards characters and have full experience of a play, sometimes it is essential to move past and ignore what we know is reality and accept that what we are seeing is a suspension of disbelief.
Suspension of disbelief is thought to be important in order to gain knowledge. It is arguably somewhat hard for anyone to learn and gain new information without considering their original assumptions, implications and their own conflicts, that are being presented. In some cases, we have to give up reason and our beliefs of what we know, in order to gain knowledge.
One area of knowledge in which the suspension of disbelief can be argued to be essential in allowing us to progress and gain knowledge, is in the Natural Sciences. The natural sciences are 'The knowledge of hard concepts that have proven difficult to gain from science'. Reason is a key aspect of natural science and it is used in situations where things don't always make full sense to us, enabling us to look for physical evidence in order to complete or conclude a theory. In science theories are put forward and hypothesised before they can be proven and tested. Theories however cannot always be concluded until we can accept there is evidence and consequently move forward in scientific discovery. Suspension of disbelief is required here, to allow the creation of new theories that then relate and are based back to existing ones, it also prevents us from questioning any doubts we gather through the investigation. Reason is also needed in order to believe that a theory is true without having instant truth.
Suspension of disbelief in addition with reason, play a vital role in validating knowledge in the natural sciences. For example, in the fifth century, the idea that the world was a sphere was established within the scientific community. However uninformed people believed that the world was flat based off their own personal knowledge and perception, and in order for them to gain full insight into the knowledge and understanding of this scientific perception, these individuals needed to suspend their personal beliefs in order to accept shared knowledge.
Science frequently proposes the existence of the invisible, this can be seen in the instance of the theory of the Higgs Boson, which was theoretically discovered by Peter Higgs. The 'Higgs Boson' is an elementary particle that is found in the standard model of particle physics.
Higgs stated that believing in the Higgs Boson, is an act of faith which can lead to the understanding of all creation. However, if Higgs claimed 'Higgs Boson' to be an act of faith then why is suspension of disbelief necessary?
The natural sciences have made fascinating discoveries and advancements in the understanding of the ways of the universe. Suspension of belief enables researchers to continue to explore further underlying groundwork for theories and reduce the number of concepts put out into the world. As this happens, this makes simpler explanations in areas such as the natural sciences. However, it is a fact that we cannot achieve full certainty of scientific knowledge. The principles of science can never be proven experimentally; however, when they can be proven wrong they can be labelled as falsified. Theories and scientific laws we know and use daily have been tested thousands of times and still come with limitations to them. One of the biggest achievements made in the natural sciences was Einstein's theory of general relativity. Einstein built his concept upon Newton's theory. However, what if Newton's theory was incorrect? By suspending disbelief in science, we are basing all our scientific discoveries off other theories that are not certainly true and therefore it can be argued that by choosing to not suspend belief in this case and many others, reduces the likeliness of error. Science is often being built up with the use of inductive reasoning (reasoning based on observation). By suspending disbelief in science, especially where theories are considered, we are preventing the option of more open and broader discoveries and scientific explanations. Suspension of disbelief can be said to be unreliable in the field of natural science.
Another area of knowledge that is believed to require suspension of disbelief is in Religious Knowledge Systems (RKS). RKS refer to a system of belief where a person practices the worship of a divine figure. When a person begins their journey of practicing in their chosen religion, faith is considered to be vital, as many religious philosophies are imperceptible until the individual gains an understanding through explanations. Faith can be said to be a willing suspension of disbelief, as we push past previous acquired knowledge and any doubts or conflicts of knowledge that may be held by us, in order to fully believe. Without faith the practicing and knowledge of a religion would be hard to exist to an individual, by suspending belief it allows the belief of God and, or a higher power, where there is no physical proof.
Religions are based on stories that were written in ancient text and were translated at a much later date. All ancient religion has no hard-physical evidence, faith is the main aspect that makes an individual believe in the religion they identify with. Many people debate on whether Jesus Christ was crucified, however, all Catholics believe that he was crucified and that on the third day he was resurrected and ascended into Heaven. This belief lead to the creation of Heaven and the redemption of Mankind. If Jesus Christ was not crucified, then this would lead to the question… are all priest liars?
A person who holds no faith or belief in God, will have questions about life that may not be able to be answered, where-as a person who follows a religion has access to all life's deep and complicated questions that human beings struggle with through-out life. God is thought to hold all answers to every individual's questions that reason cannot find.
In all Christian masses, during the Eucharist, bread and wine is presented. Specifically, in the Roman Catholic mass, transubstantiation occurs, this is where the adherents of the creed believe that during the consecration the substance of the Eucharist are the literal body and blood of Jesus Christ. Transubstantiation is a specific form of suspension of disbelief and is essential because if one does not suspend their disbelief and agree with the beliefs of the Catholic church that the bread and wine has actually become the divine substance of Jesus Christ, then one is not Catholic.
Contrary to this in Christian masses, consubstantiation is the belief that the substance of the Eucharist co-exists and is purely symbolic of the body and blood of Jesus Christ and therefore suspension of disbelief is not required in this mass service and is purely symbolic.
Without suspension of dis-belief in religion many religions could not stand up to rigorous scrutiny and therefor doubts would lead to a collapse to those religions.
It can be argued that suspension of disbelief is not needed in religion and in fact reason can lead to the acceptance and following of a religion. The Prophet Muhammed said, 'God has not created anything better than reason, or anything more perfect or more beautiful than reason'. Reason leads to specific conclusions based on weighting up general principles and it aids in the way we make sense of the world with rationality and logic. The use of reason is essential for an individual to identify with a religious group and then one can accept with doubts what we already know and apply this to what each religion preaches. Meanwhile faith is the strong belief in the doctrines of religion from spiritual conviction rather than proof. Suspension of disbelief is not essential in the knowledge of religion as everyone needs to apply reason and be open minded, Religion is never solid. Individuals are free to convert to different Religions and suspending disbelief allows this.
Suspension of disbelief is essential in many areas of the knowledge such as the natural sciences and religion. In natural sciences it allows the creation and development of new theories and scientific discoveries by preventing doubts and conflicts that are based on previous knowledge, and in religion it is important as there is no hard-physical evidence besides stories from ancient texts. Therefore, allowing the belief of God and higher powers where proof cannot be given.