The Glade 4.0

Why do you need to be 100% positive on something? It seems like everyone is getting all in a tizzy over "being sure" about something, while at the same time saying that you can't be sure. You can't be sure of anything; you have to have at least a few underlying assumptions. Until those assumptions have evidence found to show that they are incorrect, it is safe to think that they are accurate. This is how science works, and the scientific process is the best system we have for analyzing data in our "real" world/universe.

But what is the big deal of being 100% sure? Is it a safety blanket? Is it an argument for having faith in some kind of deity?

_________________
"I've got twenty ways to tell you shut the f*ck up / nineteen of them are twenty-four bars long / the other one goes: SHUT THE F*CK UP" - Aesop Rock
"There is no God higher than truth." -- Gandhi
Formerly: Tulamian

It is an argument that you need to have to take a leap of faith to say there is no deity, or that there is a deity. You can only follow the scientific process to a certain point: beyond that point you need to "take it on faith".

_________________
Darksiege
Traveller, Calé, Whisperer
Lead me not into temptation; for I know a shortcut

Most of us can deal with amounts of uncertainty. There are a few people, however, that profess absolute surety of $SOMETHING. When that happens, a lot of people rush in to poke them with sticks.

_________________

There have been people throughout history who can prove just about anything they want to until you are 100% satisfied.

There are great institutions, dedicated to housing and feeding these men and women, for the good of society.

Cons and prisons.

_________________
The U. S. Constitution doesn't guarantee happiness, only the pursuit of it. You have to catch up with it yourself. B. Franklin

"A mind needs books like a sword needs a whetstone." -- Tyrion Lannister, A Game of Thrones

The question is not about proving anything to anyone. It is about what you believe, and whether you really believe it to be really real.

How do you come to the belief that something is really real?

If you believe something is real to begin with, why would you worry about if it was really real unless someone introduced doubt?

Once someone introduces doubt, they need to have a framework to support that doubt. Otherwise, their doubt becomes doubtful.

_________________
The U. S. Constitution doesn't guarantee happiness, only the pursuit of it. You have to catch up with it yourself. B. Franklin

"A mind needs books like a sword needs a whetstone." -- Tyrion Lannister, A Game of Thrones

Some of you people need to hit up my boy Descartes at the library, he's really real, yo.

_________________
“The duty of a patriot is to protect his country from its government.” - Thomas Paine

So you think.

_________________

You're all 1s and 0s to me anyway.

_________________
"...the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?" -Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

So I am.

_________________
"Dress cops up as soldiers, give them military equipment, train them in military tactics, tell them they’re fighting a ‘war,’ and the consequences are predictable." —Radley Balko

There's a difference between being able to prove something to 100% certainty and being 100% sure of it yourself. For example, if I remember locking the door to the house this morning after I leave, I'll be 100% sure the house is locked even though I could never prove to anyone that I locked the house.

_________________
"Hysterical children shrieking about right-wing anything need to go sit in the corner and be quiet while the adults are talking."

I'll try to provide an example. If you believe that God is omni-present, do you do things when you are alone that you would not do when people are present? If so, then I think one has to ask him/herself this question.

That is a big door Beryllin. I use the bathroom alone. I get dressed alone. I brush my teeth alone. I know those aren't the things you are alluding to, but they are things I do alone that I do not do in the presence of others.

By that definition, the people who perform porn are behaving properly. They do things the rest of us would never do in public (well, I wouldn't anyway) and film it for all the (interested) world to see.

It is a slippery slope. That is way too loose a definition, in my opinion.

_________________
The U. S. Constitution doesn't guarantee happiness, only the pursuit of it. You have to catch up with it yourself. B. Franklin

"A mind needs books like a sword needs a whetstone." -- Tyrion Lannister, A Game of Thrones

Boy, Freud would have a field day with all of you on this thread.

I went through my phase of questioning reality to the point of almost losing my sanity. And maybe I did. For awhile.
Now I've reached the point where I believe what I want to believe in just because I can.
Using society's norms as a guideline, I create my own reality within the confines of what is still socially acceptable.

I believe in God.
I believe in other things because I NEED to believe in them on order to stay sane.

_________________
"Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." Jesus of Nazareth

But it was just an example, Micheal. It was not an all-encompassing definition. It was no slippery slope; the question involves what each individual believes, and nothing more. It says nothing about what I think of what you believe, nor does the question speak to what you think about what I believe. It's a question of self-examination: "This is what I, <insert name here> believe. Do I believe that it is really real?"

I suppose another way of asking the question of yourself is, "Does what I believe guide my life fully, or is it something that I pull out on certain occasions (Sunday church, cocktail parties, discussion boards, etc) but then is put away so I can do whatever till the next time I need it or need to profess it?"

It's really nothing more than self-examination. I am examining no one, criticizing no one, etc. My purpose is fulfilled if some of you take a little time for introspection.

Douglas Adams ftw.

There's an advantage of not believing in anything...one doesn't need to concern themselves with these things!

_________________
Well Ali Baba had them forty thieves, Scheherezade had a thousand tales
But master you in luck 'cause up your sleeves you got a brand of magic never fails...
...Mister Aladdin, sir, What will your pleasure be?
Let me take your order, Jot it down -You ain't never had a friend like me
█ ♣ █