Ten beliefs
Dec. 6th, 2003 03:29 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jay1. I believe in an intangible universe, both alongside and part of the tangible universe. Numbers and ideas exist here. So does spirituality.
2. I believe in a supreme organizing principle -- God, although not necessarily the male hairy thunderer figure. I don't see what meaning gender has in that context.
3. The universe may be an unfair place, in finite time, but it all eventually works out.
4. I'm a Christian, although I think that there are also other Ways.
5. I believe that we humans are not alone in the universe.
6. I believe in the Golden Rule as a guiding principle.
7. I believe that we're here to love and to be vessels of love to others.
8. I believe that science and rationality gives us tools for appreciating the universe, by gaining deeper insights.
9. I believe in stirring-up things occasionally, just to keep everything honest.
10. I believe that I'm making a difference.
(repeated here from an email reply of mine last month toarchway)
2. I believe in a supreme organizing principle -- God, although not necessarily the male hairy thunderer figure. I don't see what meaning gender has in that context.
3. The universe may be an unfair place, in finite time, but it all eventually works out.
4. I'm a Christian, although I think that there are also other Ways.
5. I believe that we humans are not alone in the universe.
6. I believe in the Golden Rule as a guiding principle.
7. I believe that we're here to love and to be vessels of love to others.
8. I believe that science and rationality gives us tools for appreciating the universe, by gaining deeper insights.
9. I believe in stirring-up things occasionally, just to keep everything honest.
10. I believe that I'm making a difference.
(repeated here from an email reply of mine last month to
archway)
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2003-12-11 03:22 am (UTC)long-held beliefs are particularly slow to change after their original convergence.
The why of belief fascinates me, on many levels - not least, in understanding the why of my own world-views, and also, in understanding students!
But I don't feel obliged to apply Occam's Razor when I observe and understand so little, overall...
William of Ockham did not come up with a Law like Newton's Gravity, certainly. If we have insufficient data, it is necessary to 'multiply the entities', to help us gather new, potentially relevant data. But we do have to remember that these 'hypothetical entities' are tools for thought, not parts of the Universe. 'Deity hypotheses' are worthy of investigation - although of course there are as many variations as there are people. Ockham comes in when we try to assert a 'Deity Theory' but cannot produce the evidence which positively requires the existance of deity.
The social anthropomorphization of deity-concepts looks to me like foggy, somewhat unimaginative human projections.
Indeed. But projections of what?
Whatever is out there is unlikely to resemble our biases and favorite concepts.
Why does there have to be anything out there at all?