Beliefs

Just curious what some other members believe. I am assuming all or most of you believe in evolution.. expand. What do you believe?

Perhaps I can be pedantic (as an aspiring philosopher, perhaps that's my job!) and suggest we make a distinction between what we think is true (there may be a less tendentious way to say this, or maybe not), and what we believe something more as a matter of faith.

So...I think that evolution is true. (Or, pace by understanding of "truth," the best explanation we have at hand for our observations of the world.)

I *believe* something that I've basically copied from Csikszentmihalyi, the idea that live exhibits a teleology--what might be considered a moral imperative--to resist the second law of thermodynamics--that trying (even if it's ultimately impossible) to increase the degree of order in the universe, is what life is *for*. This, unlike scriptural religions as we find them in the contemporary world, is suggested by what we see in the natural world, but is in principle not something that follows from what we see there...thus, "belief" rather than "knowledge."

Based on my knowledge (limited as it is) of the world around me I think that the Theory of Evolution is true, the Big Bang Theory is true, and most of the various current theories from the natural sciences that I can think of off the top of my head are also true.

I believe that there is no such thing as the supernatural (I am a scientific humanist) and that logic, science, democracy, and compassion are all that is needed for mankind to thrive. And I also believe that there is not a moral imperative (I think some of Kant's consequentialist ideas explains morality just fine).

"Darwin made it possible to be an intellectually fulfilled atheist." Richard Dawkins The Blind Watchmaker (1996) p.6

That "label" will do for me.

Regards,

Mark

I believe there is no way to acquire anything like true, objective knowledge about the world around us ... if one even exists.

exists . . . ists . . .ts. . . .