Nothing Left In Me But Rationalism
It seems no use to start studying, my head just doesn't want to.
I will talk about how I see the world, instead.
I am sure that there is nothing in the world one can be sure of, and even if that's true I'm not really sure.
I am sceptical in regard to everything. My mind literally sighs with relief at the solid fact that 2 X 2=4, and will be, for ever and ever, amen. That the stone always falls down if we let it fall. That the Krebs cycle exists. If it weren't for the Laws of Nature, I'd long have gone crazy.
I have taken to erasing every last sign, and there weren't many to begin with, of superstitiousness, or any small habits of mine that disagree with the concept of a purely statistical world.
That is my concept of the world, and I believe in it (always keeping in mind that I doubt even that, as I doubt everything).
Everything happens or doesn't happen according to its statistical probability. And if something incredible has happened, it just means that it has realized its small potential of happening. In the long run everything finds it place and happens exactly as many times as it was statistically probable it would happen.
One of the very few things I firmly believe in is - there are no wonders. A "wonder" here is something happening against the laws of nature. Anything described as a wonder is either an unprobable but still possible event (see above) or a coincidence, or we haven't discovered the particular law of nature yet, or it didn't happen and you just say it did.
Which brings me to the next point. Illusions of any kind are my enemy. The illusion that there are wonders. The illusion that if you pray that something happens, it will increase the probability of it happening. It won't. Or, if it will, it means that you believed it would and were more confident in the real steps you took toward making it happen. Which makes it consistent with some laws of nature.
That is the illusion of the placebo effect. It is also my enemy.
I don't understand how the idea that they are not alone, that there is a god looking down at them, can be soothing and comforting to people. How the idea that a god can interfere with their lives, to the worse or better, but interfere - can be more comforting that the idea of blind coincidence. Even if something really bad happens, I would rather think statistics fucked me than god punishes me.
I can only understand religiousness as a kind of pathology. People coping with deaths of loved ones can do any sorts of crazy things.
The thought that your father, your child, your husband isn't dead and completely gone from the universe but is looking down at you may be comforting, but it is an illusion and must be rooted out.
This, at least, I mean for my own world, and I will root out every illusion in my mind, no matter how small and no matter how painful it might be (doesn't seem to be very painful).
I will always look directly at the truth, however bitter, and never look away.
For me, living on an illusion is absolutely non-compatible with having self-respect.
And you, the biologists out there, my friends and colleagues, you know I mean you. Conscience is the activity of neurons. Software can't exist without hardware. Your brain dies, you die.How can you believe, and, especially - why the hell do you want to believe that when you die, your soul doesn't? What is you biological explanation for the resurrection of Jesus? This is not a rhetorical question.
Every little thing must be explained rationally! That is the central point of my life.
..I'm not an atheist, mind. I am an agnostic. I cannot rule out the possibility that there is a power which created the incredible self-regulating systems which are so far more complicated than we can even grasp, and so gracefully built. BUT if there is such a power, the probability that it is interested in what people eat during lent or if they say their prayers and go to church is very near to nil.
Try doubting everything, everything in your fucking life and not going crazy.
AND try feeling in your heart that although the scepticism poisons you and the doubts slowly destroy the very structure of your life, there is no other way to live. You can't be sure of anything.
I will talk about how I see the world, instead.
I am sure that there is nothing in the world one can be sure of, and even if that's true I'm not really sure.
I am sceptical in regard to everything. My mind literally sighs with relief at the solid fact that 2 X 2=4, and will be, for ever and ever, amen. That the stone always falls down if we let it fall. That the Krebs cycle exists. If it weren't for the Laws of Nature, I'd long have gone crazy.
I have taken to erasing every last sign, and there weren't many to begin with, of superstitiousness, or any small habits of mine that disagree with the concept of a purely statistical world.
That is my concept of the world, and I believe in it (always keeping in mind that I doubt even that, as I doubt everything).
Everything happens or doesn't happen according to its statistical probability. And if something incredible has happened, it just means that it has realized its small potential of happening. In the long run everything finds it place and happens exactly as many times as it was statistically probable it would happen.
One of the very few things I firmly believe in is - there are no wonders. A "wonder" here is something happening against the laws of nature. Anything described as a wonder is either an unprobable but still possible event (see above) or a coincidence, or we haven't discovered the particular law of nature yet, or it didn't happen and you just say it did.
Which brings me to the next point. Illusions of any kind are my enemy. The illusion that there are wonders. The illusion that if you pray that something happens, it will increase the probability of it happening. It won't. Or, if it will, it means that you believed it would and were more confident in the real steps you took toward making it happen. Which makes it consistent with some laws of nature.
That is the illusion of the placebo effect. It is also my enemy.
I don't understand how the idea that they are not alone, that there is a god looking down at them, can be soothing and comforting to people. How the idea that a god can interfere with their lives, to the worse or better, but interfere - can be more comforting that the idea of blind coincidence. Even if something really bad happens, I would rather think statistics fucked me than god punishes me.
I can only understand religiousness as a kind of pathology. People coping with deaths of loved ones can do any sorts of crazy things.
The thought that your father, your child, your husband isn't dead and completely gone from the universe but is looking down at you may be comforting, but it is an illusion and must be rooted out.
This, at least, I mean for my own world, and I will root out every illusion in my mind, no matter how small and no matter how painful it might be (doesn't seem to be very painful).
I will always look directly at the truth, however bitter, and never look away.
For me, living on an illusion is absolutely non-compatible with having self-respect.
And you, the biologists out there, my friends and colleagues, you know I mean you. Conscience is the activity of neurons. Software can't exist without hardware. Your brain dies, you die.How can you believe, and, especially - why the hell do you want to believe that when you die, your soul doesn't? What is you biological explanation for the resurrection of Jesus? This is not a rhetorical question.
Every little thing must be explained rationally! That is the central point of my life.
..I'm not an atheist, mind. I am an agnostic. I cannot rule out the possibility that there is a power which created the incredible self-regulating systems which are so far more complicated than we can even grasp, and so gracefully built. BUT if there is such a power, the probability that it is interested in what people eat during lent or if they say their prayers and go to church is very near to nil.
Try doubting everything, everything in your fucking life and not going crazy.
AND try feeling in your heart that although the scepticism poisons you and the doubts slowly destroy the very structure of your life, there is no other way to live. You can't be sure of anything.