What do you believe without evidence? If anything.

Turtwig

Well folks as the question says, do you believe in anything but know you have little to no actual evidence to back up your position?

The obvious one for me is absolute morality. I believe morality and its standards exist the same way mathematical forms and theorems do.
I also believe that my world view and most of the science I learned is radically wrong.
Oh and that one day we won't need our physical bodies any more and will be able to transfer our consciousness to more physically able machines.

doctoremma

Good question and depends on what level you want to go to....

This morning, I moved lots of colourless, translucent solutions around lots of tubes, with nothing but inferred evidence that there was anything dissolved in said solutions. Tomorrow, a machine will tell me that I made something happen in those tubes. A scientific model will allow me to interpret what apparently happened.

Did it happen though? Who knows?

More seriously. I believe there is life out there, on another planet somewhere.

old hippy

In a universe this vast and infinite, there has to be something alien out there. Now, whether it's sentient gas/algae/amoeba - who knows? I think it's vanity to think alien life would automatically be humanoid - and also a vanity to believe we are all there is.

Mickeroo

doctoremma wrote: »

More seriously. I believe there is life out there, on another planet somewhere.

Me too. I also believe we'll someday manage to travel outside of our own solar system and find some of them.

I can't really think of anything else.

dlofnep

I don't believe in anything as a matter of fact without evidence, but I do suspect some things have a strong probability of being true - even in lack of evidence. Life outside Earth is one of them, as previously highlighted.

Chuck Stone

Other undetected dimensions.

I have no idea why. I guess I like the idea of it.

Turtwig

doctoremma wrote: »

Good question and depends on what level you want to go to....

I have Inception memes on standby so goes as deep as you want to go.

Seriously can't believe I forgot to mention Alien life. Yeah I definitely believe we're not alone in this universe.

old hippy

Chuck Stone wrote: »

Other undetected dimensions.

I have no idea why. I guess I like the idea of it.

Yay! I like the idea of the multiverse (not just a comic book staple but there's plenty of boffins out there who subscribe to it)

Gbear

Nothing that springs to mind.

If I was arguing about something and I discovered that the basis of my argument wasn't grounded in fact I'd change my beliefs accordingly.
So there may be some stuff I believe irrationally but that's only because I haven't got around to thinking about it yet.

doctoremma

Gbear wrote: »

If I was arguing about something and I discovered that the basis of my argument wasn't grounded in fact I'd change my beliefs accordingly.
So there may be some stuff I believe irrationally but that's only because I haven't got around to thinking about it yet.

Agree in principle. I think that you might be able to stretch the bounds of rational thinking to include "probability" though?

Is there any evidence for life on other planets? No.
Is the possibility excluded? No.
Does probability favour it? IMO, yes.
Do I believe there is life on other planets? Yes.
Would I try to conflate my belief with universal truth? No.

Gbear

doctoremma wrote: »

Agree in principle. I think that you might be able to stretch the bounds of rational thinking to include "probability" though?

Is there any evidence for life on other planets? No.
Is the possibility excluded? No.
Does probability favour it? IMO, yes.
Do I believe there is life on other planets? Yes.
Would I try to conflate my belief with universal truth? No.

Yeah. Basically, is there a rational basis for the belief?
So either through empirical observation, probability or mathematical proof, I suppose.

There's a world of difference between requiring specific evidence for life on that planet over there and evidence for there being life somewhere.

robindch

Jernal wrote: »

[...] do you believe in anything but know you have little to no actual evidence to back up your position?

That the best is yet to come?

Turtwig

robindch wrote: »

That the best is yet to come?

Homer Simpson : "Correction : Worst day of your life so far."

Rheo

Life on other planets. It's a very reasonable belief to have without evidence I reckon.

I believe the children are our future.

MagicMarker

That I'm good in bed, I have evidence to support this theory but it's purely anecdotal.

Turtwig

mickrock wrote: »

It seems a lot here believe in neo-Darwinism despite the lack of evidence.

It's funny how creationists always seem to miss the point of everything. I didn't ask what you thought others here believed without evidence, I asked what you yourself believe without evidence. But I guess you did sort of answer that with creationism.

Sycopat

Let's get back on topic shall we?

I believe the world, universe etc. is real.

I believe that sapience is special and should be treasured and respected.

I believe life is extant in the universe, but I also believe complex multicellular life is quite rare.

I believe (perhap's 'am afraid' is a better choice of words?) if we don't get off this planet and start exploiting our solar systems resources within the next 2-3 hundred years, we never will.

krudler

that my washing machine is a sock stealing portal to another dimension.

fatmammycat

krudler wrote: »

that my washing machine is a sock stealing portal to another dimension.

This to the power of infinite suns.

Obliq

robindch wrote: »

That the best is yet to come?

Awww:) That's a glass half full person!

On that note, I'll go with the other dimensions/existence that we can't observe as humans yet. And I'm interested in/alerted to that by the study of the positions of electrons being based on our observational abilities.

Andrewf20

I believe in life on other earth like planets. Thankfully I wont be damned to hell if one day I decide not to believe.

nagirrac

I believe that thoughts do not just relate to our current state of mind but greatly influence who we are as individuals. I do not believe we are robots without free will. I believe we have control over our thoughts and can choose to allow negative or positive thoughts control our lives. I believe focussing on a specific thought pattern can change our brains at a physical level. I believe consciousness is real and is not made of matter or rather matter as we currently understand it. I base this on the belief that if consciousness were made from the matter in our brains it could not act causally on the matter it is made of.

antiskeptic

Jernal wrote: »

Well folks as the question says, do you believe in anything but know you have little to no actual evidence to back up your position?

The obvious one for me is absolute morality. I believe morality and its standards exist the same way mathematical forms and theorems do.
I also believe that my world view and most of the science I learned is radically wrong.
Oh and that one day we won't need our physical bodies any more and will be able to transfer our consciousness to more physically able machines.

If defining evidence as something empirical (of empirically inferrable) then I'd suppose that most on this forum believe only that which is empirically demonstrable constitutes evidence.

There is, of course, no empirical evidence for that belief.

Daftendirekt

I believe that Meat Loaf would, in fact, do that for love, despite his protests to the contrary.

Turtwig

antiskeptic wrote: »

If defining evidence as something empirical (of empirically inferrable) then I'd suppose that most on this forum believe only that which is empirically demonstrable constitutes evidence.

There is, of course, no empirical evidence for that belief.

Great, now how about what you believe without actual evidence?

Oh but yes you are right one central tenet, if you like, of scepticism is that beliefs themselves require evidence.

Zombrex

mickrock wrote: »

It seems a lot here believe in neo-Darwinism despite the lack of evidence.

There not being any evidence and someone being too stupid to understand the evidence are two different things.

As for the question, I believe that tomorrow the universe will function much as it has done in the past, though there is no evidence that this will be the case

Zombrex

antiskeptic wrote: »

If defining evidence as something empirical (of empirically inferrable) then I'd suppose that most on this forum believe only that which is empirically demonstrable constitutes evidence.

There is, of course, no empirical evidence for that belief.

Since when is a definition of a word a "belief" that requires evidence? Evidence based on what?

jank

doctoremma wrote: »

More seriously. I believe there is life out there, on another planet somewhere.

Thats a very interesting point. Many people including many atheists believe that there is live out there in the universe yet there is no proof as such that there is.
However when it comes to 'god' then they don't believe as there is no proof....

Could never get my head around that one. Even Dawkins falls into that trap. How can one believe in something with no proof then be so strong in their belief that there is no god for lack of proof.

Anyway, I also believe that there is life out there somewhere but also believe there is a maker behind the universe. I also believe that us humans have a mighty opinion of ourselves that has no basis in fact on this earth.

Nodin

jank wrote: »

Thats a very interesting point. Many people including many atheists believe that there is live out there in the universe yet there is no proof as such that there is.
However when it comes to 'god' then they don't believe as there is no proof....

.........

There is verifiable life on this planet.

There is no evidence of any supernatural phenomena whatsoever. No ghosts, poltergeists, vampires, werewolves, witches, warlocks, magic, elves, leprachauns, demons, devils or gods. At all. Ne'er a one.

MagicMarker

Well, life isn't an imaginary friend with super powers. We know that life exists on at least one planet, it's not exactly a stretch to believe that it may exist on another in a Universe containing billions and billions of planets.

Zombrex

jank wrote: »

Thats a very interesting point. Many people including many atheists believe that there is live out there in the universe yet there is no proof as such that there is.
However when it comes to 'god' then they don't believe as there is no proof....

Could never get my head around that one. Even Dawkins falls into that trap. How can one believe in something with no proof then be so strong in their belief that there is no god for lack of proof.

You are aware there is life on Earth, correct?

We already know that life can exist in this universe, we are evidence of this fact. The notion that life can exist else were simply requires the reproduction of circumstance. And given the size of the universe that seems likely.

If you showed me an example of a god that exists (doesn't matter which one) then I would have more time for entertaining the idea that more than one exists.

Can you show me the first god exists? Cause I can show you the first example of life in this universe.

endacl

OK. I'm going to go out on a limb here.....

I believe......

















..... that someday, on of my well-meaning contributions to threads on the christianity forum will be read, considered, and alter a world-view.

Oh, and that someday BB and RTDH will be proved right. About something...

I'm an optimist in the face of reality.

jank

Seems as usual people cant take a discussion lying down.

Is there proof of aliens other than oursleves? No there isn't.
Is there proof of god. No there isn't.

Everything else is window dressing. Yes, we exist in the universe but that doesnt prove that we are not alone nor does us being here in the universe prove that god exists.

Is everyone secretly an Agnostic?;)

Zombrex

jank wrote: »

Seems as usual people cant take a discussion lying down.

Is there proof of aliens other than oursleves? No there isn't.
Is there proof of god. No there isn't.

Everything else is window dressing. Yes, we exist in the universe but that doesnt prove that we are not alone nor does us being here in the universe prove that god exists.

Is everyone secretly an Agnostic?;)

Proof doesn't exist outside of mathematics. You don't have proof for anything you believe about the real world, whether it is the belief that God exists or the belief that you are in a house on Earth eating your breakfast. What you do have is various degrees of satisfactory evidence and reason for believing that this is the case. You can never prove it to be the case (you might actually be in the Matrix), but then you can never prove anything about the world.

There is far more reason to believe aliens probably exist than there is to believe God probably exists. We can prove neither (even if you met aliens it wouldn't prove they exists), but that doesn't mean both are of equivalent. One is a reasonable belief based on both the existence of life on Earth and the size of the universe. The other is stupidity based on ego-centralism and faulty logic.

pauldla

jank wrote: »

Seems as usual people cant take a discussion lying down.

Is there proof of aliens other than oursleves? No there isn't.
Is there proof of god. No there isn't.

Everything else is window dressing. Yes, we exist in the universe but that doesnt prove that we are not alone nor does us being here in the universe prove that god exists.

Is everyone secretly an Agnostic?;)

But we do have proof of life in the universe, though. We are that proof.

We know that there are roughly 200 billion stars in our galaxy.

To me, it seems highly unlikely that, with such numbers, ours is the only star system that has produced life.

This does not prove that there is life out there, though: it just means that the belief that there is life out there is justified, based on statistical likelihood. Or am I wrong...?

Nodin

jank wrote: »

Seems as usual people cant take a discussion lying down.
.....

No, people refuse to allow crap to go unquestioned. Its healthy.

We have an example of a planet with life on it - our own. We have no/zero examples of any form of supernatural phenomena/life whatsoever. Not a one.

Penn

jank wrote: »

Is everyone secretly an Agnostic?;)

I think most people here are agnostics.

I'm agnostic because I don't know if a god or gods exist.
I'm atheist because I don't believe any god or gods exist.

The two aren't mutually exclusive.

I also believe in life on other planets. Like someone else said, billions of stars with even more billions of planets and moons... I think it'd be ridiculous to assume we are on the only planet in the Universe which supports some form of life, even if it's just some sort of plant life.

CerebralCortex

dlofnep wrote: »

I don't believe in anything as a matter of fact without evidence, but I do suspect some things have a strong probability of being true - even in lack of evidence. Life outside Earth is one of them, as previously highlighted.

Aren't probability estimates not built on evidence? Does the other life in the universe belief really not have that much evidence?

al28283

old hippy wrote: »

In a universe this vast and infinite, there has to be something alien out there. Now, whether it's sentient gas/algae/amoeba - who knows? I think it's vanity to think alien life would automatically be humanoid - and also a vanity to believe we are all there is.

But if there are an infinite number of universes there must be an infinite amount of universes where humans are the only lifeform

MagicMarker

al28283 wrote: »

But if there are an infinite number of universes there must be an infinite amount of universes where humans are the only lifeform

Que?

Zombrex

al28283 wrote: »

But if there are an infinite number of universes there must be an infinite amount of universes where humans are the only lifeform

Correct. There must also be an infinite amount of universe where humans are not the only lifeform.

Infinity is fun

al28283

MagicMarker wrote: »

Que?

I said if there are an infinite number of universes there must be an infinite amount of universes where humans are the only lifeform

MagicMarker

al28283 wrote: »

I said if there are an infinite number of universes there must be an infinite amount of universes where humans are the only lifeform

Que?

robindch

dlofnep wrote: »

Life outside Earth is one of them, as previously highlighted.

Frank Drake is the guy you're looking for:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drake_equation

Doctor DooM

MagicMarker wrote: »

Que?

He's making the standard mistake of the "if an infinite number of universes exist, then everything imaginable must exist". So if there's an infinite number of universes there's always more where only humans exist.

If I understand correctly (and I genuinely stand to be corrected) even if this were established as true, infinity is merely the opposite of finite, as in there'd be an unending stream of realities, but not necessarily in any of them would ever exist a certain set of circumstances. Another problem is even if there were an infinite number of dimensions, there's only so many different configurations of atoms that could be formed in it (Much like if you randomly shuffled a deck of cards there would only be a certain number of ways the deck could be stacked, even if shuffled infinitely- 52 x 51 x 50...)

So yeah anyway infinite apparently doesn't mean what most people think, when it comes to universes and realities and stuff.

kylith

What do I believe without evidence? I believe that my dogs love me. I believe that, one day, I will start that diet.

I can't think of anything else right now.

al28283

Doctor DooM wrote: »

So if there's an infinite number of universes there's always more where only humans exist.

How can there be more than Inifinite???

Doctor DooM

al28283 wrote: »

How can there be more than Inifinite???

You're misreading my post.

al28283

Doctor DooM wrote: »

You're misreading my post.

I don't believe I am but I have no evidence of that

Dades

I sometimes believe I can play football like Roberto Baggio, despite much evidence to the contrary.