Subject: Re: [lojban] krici

From: "Jorge Llambias" <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 23 Mar 2001 02:50:34

la xod cusku di'e

>So, you're saying when you believe in God you don't really believe in
>God, because absolutely nothing has convinced you that He exists even when
>you are in a state of "belief"?

No, I'm not saying that. I'm saying that I really do believe, in
spite of being unable to justify my belief to you, and in spite of
knowing that if I thought about it rationally for a while I would
not come to that conclusion. The reason I have those periods of
belief, in this particular Christian God and not any other, are
also pretty clear: I was so taught (or maybe brainwashed) in my
childhood, and so it is for me a comfortable state to be in,
like wearing some old pair of shoes that you wouldn't wear outside
your home. And that is the reason, I think, that people usually
stick unquestioningly to this type of belief, it is safe and
comfortable, and not because they have evidence. I don't think
for a minute that what I was taught as a child constitutes
valid evidence for my belief, I only know that that is where
the belief comes from. As a child I believed because that was
what everybody else did (or so it seemed), not because the belief
itself made any sense to me. When I believe now it is as an echo
of those times.

>This is surely not what most people consider belief.

Well, most of my beliefs are like that really. Once I start
examining them rationally I usually come to the conclusion
that there is no valid evidence for them and that I could
very well hold the opposite position given the right
circumstances.

>Most religious
>people, followers of political doctrines, kook conspiracy theorists,
>racists, and the insane feel they have AMPLE evidence for their beliefs.

I never disputed that. But then most people are not extremists
most of the time.

>I
>have yet to hear anybody say anything like "I believe that a CIA
>conspiracy killed JFK, but I admit there isn't a shred of evidence to
>prove it."

That's unlikely, yes. But you don't prove that all beliefs are
based on evidence by showing that some of them are, or that
many people claim to have evidence for their beliefs.

co'o mi'e xorxes

_________________________________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com.