Listing many of my beliefs and disbeliefs.

[St Giordano Bruno]

I do describe myself as scientific pantheist who reveres the universe with the same passion as devout Christians or Muslims revere their God. It is just that I do not expect any favours in return.
So these are some of my beliefs which are the most outstanding ones that springs to mind:

1. I believe there is nothing outside the natural universe and no supernatural being was needed to start it or design it. It in accordance to Hawking's theory started itself out of spontaneous creation from an unstable pristine nothingness.
2. I believe the universe is of such an enormous size brought on by its initial inflationary expansion that it is far bigger than I could have ever previously imagined and the observable universe only extends out to the cosmic horizon about 13 billion light years away. But that is only a minute fraction of the entire universe, so the observable universe is much smaller in comparison rest of the universe than a proton is to the observable universe. It also means in a universe of such a vast size Earth-like planets can emerge just out of natural happenstance than divine intervention.
3. I believe complexity and complex systems emerged spontaneously at critical phases along the universes timeline such as with metallicity, abiogenisis and consciousness - again as emergent properties.
4. I believe in a weak anthropic principle as opposed to a “strong” anthropic principle and we exist just out of anthropic necessity because it is not possible of being aware of any of the trillions of other possible states we cannot exist such as scenarios where your parents had never met or some other sperm of the 300 million others had beaten that one that fertilized the egg that made you. I just believe the universe is the reason the self exists and not the other way around.
5. I believe there only needs to be one expression of soul or the self for the universe to be aware of itself and every sentient being is the expression of the one self.
6. I believe in the principle of Ockham’s Razor to a point and if there are two competing theories of the same thing and one is more complex that the other I favour the simpler one, but I do like Albert Einstein’s quote on this issue, “Make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler”
7. I believe morality is for social stability and I subscribe to the golden rule as not treat others or animals in a manner you do not like being treated, and if you eat meat the animal should be killed as humanely as possible.
8. I believe in a combination of the Copernican and rare earth hypothesis as due to the universe's huge scale it would be inconceivable other earth like planets do not exist elsewhere in the universe even though I think they would probably be rare.
9. I believe in the principles of Darwin's theories as the principle reason for our planet's biodiversity through natural selection and not every individual species was created individually and separately with a divine power.
10. I believe in Hugh Everett’s many world’s interpretation but it overcomes the paradox of Schrödinger’s cat.
11. I believe that complexity emerged in the universe through different important phases on its timeline such as phase transitions rather than the teleological argument for intelligent design. An intelligent designer would have to be a complex being within itself. So using complexity as an excuse to create complexity would be paradoxical in my opinion.
12. I believe in the possibility of metempsychosis or “reincarnation” because I believe whatever can happen naturally can happen again and is far closer to biological reality than supernatural entities such as becoming an angel, a ghost or a vampire after one dies. I echo much the same beliefs and David Hume in this respect who preferred metempsychosis to the supernatural afterlife doctrine of the established churches of his time.

Now my disbeliefs.

1. I don’t believe in divine intervention or the power of prayer or miracles in any way.
2. I don't believe in supernatural beings or a supreme sentient being that created to universe.
3. I don’t believe it is possible for people to remember a past life through past life regressive therapy or otherwise as I can not possible comprehend any mechanism where memories from a previous life can be transferred in to this one. I think when you are dead then all your memories of this life a totally obliterated with the death of them memory information stored in that brain and from a subjective point of view be exactly identical to never been born at all in the first place. It is not metempsychosis I have such a issue with because I believe whatever can happen naturally can be repeated and that also applies to the self, but past life memories I do. I think there is enough to cope with in this life without cluttering up our brains with memories of past lives.
4. I don't believe that when we die we go on to live in some supernatural realm or in some ghostly non biological spirit form and I don’t believe we should impoverish our lives for such an impoverish reward such as living the simple life of a Trappist monk (albeit some lived very inebriated and merry life on Belgian beer)
5. I don’t believe in any theory which is paradoxical. Any paradoxical theory is a theory against itself.
6. I don’t believe in the concept of sin as some burden of shame and guilt that we take with us after we die. I think our moral behaviour in this life has no bearing on what happens to us after we die.
7. I don’t believe in astrology at all as I can’t see how planetary alignments on points of reference on the solarsystems ecliptic plane are a major influence on our lives, or even the arrangement of tea leaves or lines on the palms of one’s hands has much of an effect.
8. I don’t believe for the moment the earth has been visited by extra-terrestrial beings “aliens” as much as I would like to believe in them. I should thing the distances required for them to make the distance would be physically impossible. So that rules out alien abductions.
9. I don’t believe in mental telepathy such as identical twins feeling each other’s pain or even communicating with aliens through such means.
10. I don’t believe in psychokinetic powers such as bending spoons with mind power or levitation
    

 

[Valjean]

An interesting and varied list, St Bruno.

I trust you have a mind open enough to modify this credo as you become aware of new evidence or interpretation.

 

[sniper762]

g bruno, i'm ALMOST with ya

i believe similarly, but unlike you, i have come to comprehend that "christianity" CAN be plausible as long as you put it in the right perspective with these beliefs. i can elaborate if interested.

 

[0zyzzyz0]

Nice!
I believe it would be most excellent if some become inspired by your example and go on to consider and codify their own beliefs and disbeliefs. I think I owe it to myself to attempt doing what you've done here. I expect such a close self examination wasn't an easy thing to do. Was it something of an evolutionary process? Have these lists been long in the making?
Kuddos
and thanx for sharing

 

[St Giordano Bruno]

An interesting and varied list, St Bruno.

I trust you have a mind open enough to modify this credo as you become aware of new evidence or interpretation.

Definitely, there have been several instances where I have changed my mind in the light of new evidence such as I liked Fred Hoyle's steady state theory at one time it just sounded so elegant at the time, but I think the discovery of the microwave background radiation back in the 1960's by Penzias and Wilson it all but put paid to that theory. These days I just happen to be < 95% sure the big bang theory is true.

Metempsychosis? I am still also not 100% sure of it because there is no evidence for or against it as yet. All I know is that I have lived at least one life in this universe I am aware of which IMHO is better than living none at all. I just believe if it can happen naturally then in all probability it can happen again and that should not only apply to metempsychosis but also the existence of other earth-like planets in the universe.
I can only apply this syllogism to some of my beliefs
Major premise: Anything that can happen naturally will happen again.
Minor premise: A planet like earth happened naturally, your sense of self happened naturally.
Conclusion: Therefore they will happen again.
So I argue a belief in such things on the basis of logic rather than evidence.