Posted by fachad on July 23, 2002, at 0:44:15
What do I believe?
A favorite passage of mine said it so well, I'll just quote it directly:
"I DO NOT BELIEVE ANYTHING"
"...It seems to be a hangover of the medieval era that causes most people, even the educated, to think that everybody must "believe" something or other, that if one is not a theist, one must be a dogmatic atheist, and if one does not think Capitalism is perfect, one must believe ferverently in Socialism, and if one does not have blind faith in X, one must alternately have blind faith in not-X or the reverse of X."
"My own opinion is that BELIEF IS THE DEATH OF INTELLIGENCE. As soon as one believes a doctrine of any sort, or assumes certitude, one stops thinking about that aspect of existence. The more certitude one assumes, the less there is left to think about, and a person sure of everything would never have any need to think about anything and might be considered clinically dead by current medical standards, where the absence of brain activity is taken to mean that life has ended"
“Belief in the traditional sense, or certitude, or dogma, amounts to the grandiose delusion, “My current model – or grid – or map – or reality-tunnel – contains the whole universe and will never need to be revised.” In terms of the history of science and of knowledge in general, this appears absurd…”
From Cosmic Trigger: The Final Secret of the Illuminati, by Robert Anton Wilson
poster:fachad
thread:677
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/faith/20020715/msgs/677.html