The Suspension Of Belief In Albert Einstein's Theory Of Knowledge

As “meaning-seeking creatures” (Lickerman, 2010), we humans are always looking for the meaning and purpose of our lives, hence, we are constantly seeking knowledge in hopes to improve our understanding of the world. The suspension of disbelief often helps us understand or accept the premise of a story in theatre, could it be possible that just as how the suspension of disbelief helps understand the story, or comprehend unexplainable phenomenon found in a story, suspension of disbelief could help us understand our world better?

Suspension of disbelief can be defined as withholding judgment for a period of time to understand something in a different manner. In terms of theory of knowledge, it can be viewed as disregarding a specific way of

This brings us the question: could disregard of a specific way of knowing (WOK) and use of another in the natural sciences lead to the production of new knowledge? Many times, the disregard of reasoning, or common sense, can initiate new scientific discoveries. In fact, Albert Einstein’s special theory of relativity, began with what he called gedunken (or thought) experiments; "what if?" scenarios that opened out his thinking in wild new directions (Sundermier, 2016). Einstein wondered what would happen if you chase a beam of light as it moves through space, this thought laid the groundwork for his special theory of relativity (Sundermier, 2016). Einstein used his imagination instead of reasoning to question the ‘unbelievable’ which then lead to a scientific discovery, thus proving that the suspension of disbelief is essential for the production of new knowledge as it provides more perspective which opens up the possibility of discovering more

The commonly used ways of knowing in this area of knowledge are memory and faith. We are introduced to religion by the people around us, culture or by our personal experiences that become a part of our memory which leads to our faith in a particular belief system. Could the employment of another way of knowing other help us evaluate the reliability of religious texts as a way of