Response: Neutral Rationality

In response to Stacy Fisher's post "Half-Beliefs" (February 19, 2012):

It seems possible that someone could hold a half-belief which is rational if their conscious choice of belief is not rational.  For example, if someone believed that evolution was a myth, they might still hold a half-belief that it was not, due to the arguments of others who accepted the reality of evolution.

Regarding rational half-beliefs which do not depend on irrationality of other beliefs to exist, I cannot think of any.  However, I can think of some which are not totally irrational.  Belief in a deity, for example, is often neither rational nor irrational.  Many deities have undisprovability built into their very definitions, in the sense that they are said to be unknowable.  As such, their existence is purely a matter of conjecture.  If a person was not certain whether or not they believed in such a deity, the might be considered to hold a non-irrational half-belief.