This is an outline of my beliefs.
Knowledge
- The scientific method (science) is the best tool to measure the truthfulness of knowledge (information). Science is the process of verifying the information we already have, looking for the new information we are anticipating, and discovering unanticipated information.
- Knowledge is gained by one of our five senses and is subject to the limits of those senses and to the limits of the human mind. We can expand the limits of our senses by using tools like microscopes or telescopes or computers, etc. But due to our inherent human limits it is possible that science may not be able to fully explain everything in the universe.
- Most (if not all) knowledge contains a degree of uncertainty. Knowledge is measured by its degree of certainty or uncertainty. Knowledge with a high degree of certainty is called a fact.
- Primitive man was hampered by a lack of knowledge. Modern man is confused by a surplus of knowledge.
Human Nature
- Human beings of all races and throughout recent human history have much in common. We are more similar than we are different. For this reason we can and do generalize about people and call it human nature.
- Each individual (their thoughts, personality, attitude, hopes, fears, and dreams) is a product of their unique physical (and mental attributes) and their cumulative knowledge and experiences.
- Assumptions are often times more important or influential than facts. This is because we are rarely able to or rarely make the effort to test our assumptions and instead treat them as facts. Assumptions are a necessary compromise in order to function in life because we can’t continuously verify everything.
Morality
- Human consciousness is the source and the measure of morality. Without human consciousness morality would not exist.
- The proper measure of morality is from the prospective of the consequences, the person who is being effected by an event (the golden rule) and not from the prospective of the cause, the perpetrator of the event (relative morality).
- Religions adopted the morality present in their founding culture and built their own (absolute) morality upon it.
Religions
- It is incorrect to suggest that atheists are any more or less logical than theists. The human mind is very logical but is limited by what it knows. Given early man’s limited knowledge, their religious beliefs were quite logical. But with more knowledge we now see that religions are a mistake. An error made by primitive man based upon the limited information available at his time.
- Over time religions have become so curve fit to the human condition and have developed such effective self-propagation features that they continue to thrive in spite of the better information currently available.
- Religions are an evolutionary coping mechanism. Religions don’t depend on the existence of a god. They depend on the belief in a god. Religions continue to survive and even thrive because they fill a basic human need for answers and security. Despite how rational we humans like to think we are, many still need coping mechanisms like denial and self delusion (religions) to shield us from the harshness reality, and to shield us from having to deal with the awareness of our own impending death.
- The biggest harm caused by religions is their opportunity cost.
Atheism
- It is possible that God or a god or gods exist. But it’s not probable. Religious believers (theists) are motivated by the possibility that God exists. Atheists are motivated by the probability that God does not exist.
- Atheism is both the lack of belief in a god and the belief that a god does not exist. But the lack of belief in a god is a theoretical position that will not survive for long in the real world because it is not possible to live for any period of time and not form a conclusion about the nature of god. Lack of belief in a god is a theoretical position. The belief that god does not exist is a real world conclusion.
- Atheism is reality. Religions are perceptions of reality.
- One of the reasons that religions still thrive is because they address man’s deepest hopes and fears about life. Secular world views can not easily compete with religious world views until they successfully address these issues.
- Atheists can learn much from religions because they are a product of the human mind and are built upon thousands of generations of human history. The study of religions is an exercise in philosophy, sociology, and cultural anthropology. It is a look at our shared past.