JCC What do you believe, and why?

I have a chemistry minor and I just wanted to say no. No chemistry. Ugh.

Oh, and incidentally "Power of" is possibly apocryphal. The official meaning of p is base 10 log.

 

Chemistry is bad and it should feel bad.

 

I agree with all of this (except for the bit about soup and hot drinks ).

When I was younger I was a hard atheist and an antitheist, and was more argumentative about it in the vein of Dawkins. Over the past few years I've mellowed out a lot and have become a soft atheist. I've become an ardent follower of skepticism. I think that you shouldn't take anything for granted and say something is true or not true without thorough inquiry. After you collect as much data as possible you evaluate it and come to the most logical conclusion from it.

So now I disbelieve in a God or gods because there is no evidence supporting it and plenty of evidence that shows that at least the major religions have gotten it wrong at least partially, casting their ideologies and their specific deities into doubt. I don't think humans have ever discovered any definitive proof for or against the existence of any deities, though unlike an Agnostic I think it's certainly possible to come across it. I acknowledge that the chance of a God or gods existing exists (yay redundancy), but think that that likelihood is so small that it is more prudent to treat it as a fact that God doesn't exist until more data arrives in favor of either point. Indeed I think this way about all supernatural ideas (no, aliens do not fall under that umbrella if some of you are wondering; they almost certainly exist somewhere).

I do think that in terms of definitive proof atheists are at a disadvantage to theists, because while the burden of proof is on the theists to prove their God exists (which unfortunately for the advancement of knowledge many will deny having to do in the first place, but that's another discussion) it is much easier to prove something exists than to prove it doesn't. Science can prove that specific scriptures are wrong, but it is very hard to prove the nonexistence of something because the possibility always remains that we're missing something. On the other hand, all a theist has to do is provide physical evidence (although the only evidence I was acknowledge as such would be very difficult to pull off or out of their hands, like having their deity come down and personally prove their identity through demonstrations). The only definitive way for humans to disprove the existence of any gods at all is to gather so much data that there isn't room for any doubt, which isn't impossible but will probably take a very, very long time.

Aside from religion in general, I do believe in a personal philosophy which has large overlaps with secular humanism, though there are some major differences. I have a strong concept of duty, and think that there are some things that must be done regardless of desire. I have come up with several duties that I believe I must carry out, and self-imposed though it may be, I do not see abandoning them as a plausible option even if I wanted (though that's a moot point because I don't want to abandon them). I have structured my life and adopted my main goals because of the duties, and the knowledge of them informs all of my major decisions. As a person with many character flaws I often struggle to stay on this path and do well on it, but I persevere nonetheless in hopes of eventually accomplishing my goals.

There's something else that may or may not be of interest to people. Because I'm melodramatic and a bit pompous I actually codified the central tenets of my ethical system in a document. I'll just copy/pasta. It's not long. It's kind of like the Laws of Robotics suppose, in that the higher laws are up top and the lower ones cannot contradict the higher ones, and because it has a lot to do with not harming others. There are many reasons why I have the tenets I do, but I didn't go into them in the document; I just put down the actual rules I have to follow.

My so-called Ideals Vow:

I will never take a human life under any circumstances.
I will never let anyone else take a human life under any circumstances if there is any way that I can prevent it. I will also not let any other force take a human life under any circumstances if there is a way I can prevent it.
I will never refuse to help someone if I feel I am capable of helping them. This also applies if it is unsolicited; if I see a way that I can help someone, I will attempt to help them regardless. This still applies if the help is unwanted if it applies to the above statements.
I will never willingly permanently harm another human being under any circumstances. If I must defend myself or others, I will do my utmost to do so without doing them permanent harm.
I will never willingly harm any nonhuman animals except in extreme circumstances where not doing so would threaten my own life or that of another human.
I will do my best to not let myself be harmed through any means that do not conflict with the above statements.
I will never give up hope of finding a viable solution that does not conflict with the above statements in any situation.
If there comes a time where it is viable to survive on completely artificially created food (that does not require another living organism to die, whether animal, plant, or otherwise) then I will immediately switch to such a diet.
I will not forsake a position I believe in- if I deem it important enough- for the sake of preventing conflict.
When a conflict arises, I will never let myself dismiss what anyone has to say out of hand. Likewise, I will never let myself accept any information relating to such matters without due consideration, even if it seems to fit with my pre-existing views. After the information is received it will be analyzed and weighed against my pre-existing ideas and observations and I will let logic dictate whether I should accept or reject the new information as truth, and if so whether it will override any pre-existing ideas. The importance is in remaining as objective as possible.


So yes, it's a bit open to interpretation in some areas but the only one that really needs to understand what each one entails is me, and since I wrote it I do.

 

Don't bait.

(And especially don't bait the scientist. Just makes you look silly, really. )

 

What doesn't kill you makes you stranger.

 

I believe man created all the gods. I believe money is a religion. I believe politics does not work. I believe everything is connected. I believe teamwork can accomplish more than an individual. I believe the scientific method is the best method we have for understanding reality. I believe that TESB is the best SW film.
But sometimes I forget and believe it was ROTJ.

 

“I can believe that things are true and I can believe things that aren’t true and I can believe things where nobody knows if they’re true or not. I can believe in Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny and Marilyn Monroe and the Beatles and Elvis and Mister Ed. Listen - I believe that people are perfectible, that knowledge is infinite, that the world is run by secret banking cartels and is visited by aliens on a regular basis, nice ones that look like wrinkledy lemurs and bad ones who mutilate cattle and want our water and our women. I believe that the future sucks and I believe that future rocks and I believe that one day White Buffalo Woman is going to come back and kick everyone’s ass. I believe that all men are just overgrown boys with deep problems communicating and that the decline in good sex in America is coincident with the decline in drive-in movie theaters from state to state. I believe that all politicians are unprincipled crooks and I still believe that they are better than the alternative. I believe that California is going to sink into the sea when the big one comes, while Florida is going to dissolve into madness and alligators and toxic waste. I believe that antibacterial soap is destroying our resistance to dirt and disease so that one day we’ll all be wiped out by the common cold like the Martians in War of the Worlds. I believe that the greatest poets of the last century were Edith Sitwell and Don Marquis, that jade is dried dragon sperm, and that thousands of years ago in a former life I was a one-armed Siberian shaman. I believe that mankind’s destiny lies in the stars. I believe that candy really did taste better when I was a kid, that it’s aerodynamically impossible for a bumblebee to fly, that light is a wave and a particle, that there’s a cat in a box somewhere who’s alive and dead at the same time (although if they don’t ever open the box to feed it it’ll eventually just be two different kinds of dead), and that there are stars in the universe billions of years older than the universe itself. I believe in a personal god who cares about me and worries and oversees everything I do. I believe in an impersonal god who set the universe in motion and went off to hang with her girlfriends and doesn’t even know that I’m alive. I believe in an empty and godless universe of casual chaos, background noise, and sheer blind luck. I believe that anyone who says that sex is overrated just hasn’t done it properly. I believe that anyone claims to know what’s going on will lie about the little things too. I believe in absolute honesty and sensible social lies. I believe in a woman’s right to choose, a baby’s right to live, that while all human life is sacred there’s nothing wrong with the death penalty if you can trust the legal system implicitly, and that no one but a moron would ever trust the legal system. I believe life is a game, that life is a cruel joke, and that life is what happens when you’re alive and that you might as well lie back and enjoy it.”

 

this is what i meant to say

 

Have another round for me while you're at it.

And a ceegar please.

 

I DECIDED LONG AGO! NEVER TO POST IN ANYONE'S SHADOW!! IF I FAIL!! IF I SUCCEED!! YOU CANT TAKE AWAY MY DIG-NI-TEEEEeeeeee

 

I absolutely loathed chemistry. probably why it was a B.

 

Because the Greatest Love of All, is happening to me!!

 

I believe reality doesn't care about our beliefs.

 

SEXUAL CHOCOLATE

SEXUAL CHOCOLATE

*beat*

*drops mic*

 

42.

or Atheist.

Whichever.

 

I reality dont care.

 

I believe that humans did not evolve solely for the dogged pursuit of rational self-interest. We're neither rational nor self-interested enough to cold-heartedly embrace that existential stance. Instead, humans evolved as social primates, hard-wired for cooperative behavior, including, unfortunately the pursuit of war but also for reciprocal altruism and helping behaviors, the underlying foundation of all morality. Our brains co-evolved with the rise of language to further our common interests as social animals along with our individual wants and needs. As thoroughly social animals, we are uniquely adapted for maintaining a workable balance between our own and collective goals.

We have entrenched in our "nature" the innate capacity to sacrifice our individual needs for the common good.

Our brains did not develop, however, for flawless rational cognition, and so we are imperfect thinkers, prone to cognitive errors in the models our brains naturally employ for processing sensory inputs and language data. These flaws are deeply embedded consequences of the environmental pressures exerted on our evolving primate gray matter, yet we are smart enough to develop tools that enhance our cognitive reach and help compensate for the limits of our brains. As Lowbacca_1977 stated, the scientific method is the best tool we have, aside from language itself. It helps us codify the act of observation - how we observe and what we observe and how we decide what it means.

Our primate brains made us self-aware, but the scientific method made us meta-self-aware; it made us aware of our awareness and how we are aware, and opened the door to a more complete and objective if still imperfect understanding of reality.

Even so, our social and political lives remain at least partly under the control of the non-meta-aware parts of our primate brains. The flaws in our cognition and gaps in our understanding lead to mistakes that trickle up from the individual into group decision-making where they influence the behavior of organizations, including national governments.

Also, the ability to engage in generational planning on issues such as the multi-generational allocation of finite resources seems to have been largely weeded out of most modern cultures. Unfortunately, our disinclination to undertake strategic planning for the long term comes at a time when the human race is facing problems unprecedented in human history. The most recent doubling of the human population over the last 40 years combined with the efforts of 1.2 billion Indians and 1.3 billion Chinese to raise their standards of living to levels comparable with western Europe and North America has stressed the earth's environment and strained our ability to keep pace through technological innovation and access the resources that can supply the needs and wants of 7 billion people. The human population may never double again, but it is unlikely to top out at less than 9 billion absent some kind of intervening catastrophe. Whether manageable or not, the scope of the challenge will increase by nearly a third at the very least within the lifetimes of most of the people who post in the JCC.

At the moment, these challenges are being met by nothing more potent than blind faith, whether in divine guidance, the Invisible Hand, or the power of human ingenuity. I'm not entirely convinced these are serviceable substitutes for long-range policy planning or for binding and enforceable international agreements undertaken with the goal of achieving measurable outcomes to reduce the environmental threats posed by human overpopulation.

The only question now is whether we've already missed our window of opportunity for global action on climate change, on resource allocation, on adopting sustainable agricultural practices, on international regulatory standards for labor and manufacturing, on global population control. Maybe the time for intervention was really 40 years ago, and we are 3.5 billion people too late, or maybe that time was 60 years ago and we're 5 billion people too late. I don't know, and I don't know what will happen, but I do believe that, absent long range planning and action, the problem will eventually still solve itself, one way or another.

It may not be pretty.

 

I believe that the only thing we say to the god of death is, "not today".

In all seriousness, atheist.

 

I'm pretty sure I'm a Lutheran. That's where I am at, these days. I've made a marked and intentional move away from Evangelical Christianity. At this point, I'd say I'm an agnostic Lutheran if that makes sense. IDK if God is real, but I think she might be.

 

i believe in santa claus. i believe in the easter bunny. i believe in the tooth fairy. but I don't believe in you.

 

I am Catholic.But contrary to popular belief,I believe in not discriminating against anyone based on color,gender,abilities or sexual orientation.

 

When has Catholicism ever said anything about age?

 

Catholic aswell. I believe in higher justice.

 

lol. Yeah, the Pope's aren't exactly young bucks.

 

the priests do have a preference for youth though.