What Do You Believe Even If You Can't Prove It?

An anonymous reader writes "That's what online magazine The Edge - the World Question Center asked over 120 scientists, futurists, and other interesting minds. Their answers are sometimes short and to the point (Bruce Sterling: 'We're in for climatic mayhem'), often long and involved; they cover everything from the existence of God to the nature of black holes. What do you believe, even though you can't prove it?"

Someday

[doublem (118724)]

That some day, somehow, I will get the elusive First Post.

Re:Someday

[nine-times (778537)]

ep... you have your proof... no longer counts.

Re:Someday

[Tackhead (54550)]

> > [doublem] That some day, somehow, I will get the elusive First Post.
>
> [nine-times] ep... you have your proof... no longer counts.

...for proof denies faith, and without faith, getting a first post is nothing.

"Oh dear", says doublem, "I hadn't thought of that", and promptly vanishes in a fog of (-1, Overrated) moderation.

"Oh, that was easy", says nine-times, and for an encore, goes on to prove that (+1, Funny) is indistinguishable from (-1, Troll), and gets himself confirmed dead at the next Netcraft parody post.

Re:Someday

[goombah99 (560566)]

I beleive that I am the only human posting to slashdot and the rest are all machine generated.

Re:Someday

[daniil (775990)]

Someone on Slashdot once had a sig that read: "On the internet, everyone assumes you're a dog." I wholeheartedly agree: you're a dog.

That's easy

[by Anonymous Coward]

The female orgasm.

Women can't fake orgasms perfectly

[cryptochrome (303529)]

There are difficult-to-impossible-to-fake signs, if you know what to look/feel for. The sex flush is the best one. Pupil size generally increases when it happens too. The vaginal contractions at 0.8s intervals would be very difficult to fake also. Also there's the whole issue of their acting skills.

So... go run some experiments with this new data.

WMD

[by Anonymous Coward]

I believe that there are Weapons of mass Destruction in Iraq-

G.W. Bush

I believe I will have another martini, please.

[drewzhrodague (606182)]

I believe I will have another martini, please. Up, Sapphire, extra olives, and go easy on the vermouth.

Logic works?

[nine-times (778537)]

Being a bit of a student of philosophy, my old favorite is "logic works", or, in other words, "a proof means something".

I mean, go ahead and prove it, but you'll still be taking it for granted, or you wouldn't bother with a proof.

Re:Logic works?

[RAMMS+EIN (578166)]

In fact, the opposite has been proven. Gödel's incompleteness theorem states that a powerful enough system cannot prove its own consistency. This implies that you can make any number of proofs that are valid within your system, but you can never know if the system itself is valid. Or, as I like to say, the only thing you know for sure is that you never know anything for sure.

Of course, the incompleteness theorem itself is derived by a system of which the validity is unknown...

Redundancy

[yahyamf (751776)]

"What Do You Believe Even If You Can't Prove It?"

The question should be simply "What do you believe?" Because if something can be proven, the issue of belief does not arise. And only idiots believe what what is proven as false.

Re:Redundancy

[nebaz (453974)]

Even in Math, proof involves an agreed upon set of axioms, and an agreed upon set of operations to derive theorems. Without these common axioms, proofs are not proofs. In the real world, 'proof' is even harder to agree with consensus wise. Even sight and sound can be fooled by a clever magician, and hoaxes abound. I believe that science, done in a controlled and disinterested manner, will validate useful models of the universe, and reject others, but proof? What is proof? And the very idea of science, that is that controlled conditions yield predictable results is a base axiom, and if you disagree with that, what common discourse is there?

What comes around, goes around

[jhines0042 (184217)]

I believe that if you are nice to others, even in small ways, that the world gets better.

I believe that if you are mean to others, even in small ways, that the world gets worse.

I believe that I want the world to be a better place, and I live each day according to that.

Re:What comes around, goes around

[k4_pacific (736911)]

I think I've seen this in at least three different chain letters. You forgot to ask people to forward it.

Truth...

[ites (600337)]

... is just a tool for navigating a complex world.

In some cultures, sacrificing a goat to the spirits is a truth that may help you survive the famine, if only by making your neighbours afraid enough of you so you can steal their food.

In other cultures, knowing why the ride to work drives you crazy is a truth that helps you stay sane.

Truth is any tool that works better. Scientific truth - that is, truth derived by the scientific method - works best of all, because it fits the physical world so well.

Different truths can be in direct conflict (quantum vs. classical mechanics) and yet both be suitable tools.

Even religion is a truth that helps navigate certain kinds of reality... it's a kind of fuse box for the mind, so to speak. When logic and science can't explain why the wave hit you, perhaps religion can.

That there is no god.

[azav (469988)]

Simply put. As children, we grow up with "all knowing parental figures." With that as precident, when we grow up, we look for that figure. Therefore it is understandable and expected that humanity seek some type of all knowing figure to explain all they don not know and give them comfort when they are grown.

We as humans look for a god, even though based upon complex systems and greater scarcity of complex working systems as the systems become more complex, it is unlikely that one exists.

Christ

[bogaboga (793279)]

I believe in Christ Jesus and the "End of this Earth" as we know it today. I also believe that many of us will go to hell (the lake of fire) believe it or not.

P != NP

[JohnGrahamCumming (684871)]

I wish I could prove it, but it seems to me that it is unlikely that P == NP.

There are various points of discontinuity in mathematics and I think this is one of them (for example, we know that the number of integers is less than the number of reals and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continuum_hypothesis) .

John.

Re:I believe

[dbrower (114953)]

in intellegent design

So do I, but there seems to be darned little of it in the software that I see.

-dB

Re:I believe

[Rheingold (2741)]

How would you know what a universe that wasn't designed looked like? Have you ever experienced a universe that was designed? "Design" is one of those things that we as humans recognize in relation to things not designed; we compare, say, a chair with a fallen tree. Both can be appropriated for the task of sitting, but one is designed and other other not (presuming, of course, we're talking about a knocked over). How would you recognize if the universe werre not designed?

BTW, if you're really interested in the question and not merely espousing it as a foundation for other less tenable beliefs, I recommend that you read Bertrand Russell's "Why I Am Not a Christian (And Other Essays)" and George Smith's ""Atheism: The Case Against God."

Re:I believe

[the_mad_poster (640772)]

Please note: I.D. is billed as an "alternative" to evolution in which god exists.

The solidified and well-accepted portions of evolutionary models make no requirement, however, that you cease to believe in any gods.

Intelligent Design, therefore, while perhaps a good example of things to believe in without proof, has nothing to do with science and god. It has much more, however, to do with politically empowered people who don't understand science, and the people they seem to think are somehow disproving god.

Your ending statment, therefore, appears to have little to do with the rest of your post when it is put into the context of the post you replied to.

Re:I believe

[Sergeant Beavis (558225)]

Yes, slashdot, it's possible to believe in God and science without being a damned fundie that makes my faith look bad.

You bet! Someday people will realize that the Bible is a book of THEOLOGY and not a book of SCIENCE.

Re:I believe

[doublem (118724)]

Do intelligent design believers argue that God designed humans, animals etc directly or is it that God designed the physical laws of the universe such that everything could naturally evolve on its own?

Yes.

Both are valid schools of thought under the heading of "intelligent design"

Re:homosexuality

[vorpal^ (114901)]

Of course, if it were genetics, according to Darwin, it would be a trait that should have been wiped out long ago since homosexuals cant reproduce.

Nonsense. Homosexuals, physically, are fully capable of reproducing - it's just that the sexual acts which are appealing to them don't result in reproduction. Regardless, I know no lack of people with gay biological parents who reproduced because they felt social pressure to enter into heterosexual relationships.

Additionally, recessive genes can carry for many generations, and if homosexuality is genetic, it's obviously controlled by a sequence of genes that are recessive.

Personally, I'm gay and I don't think homosexuality is genetic. I suspect that there are biological causes (e.g. hormone levels in the mother, etc.), but I'm capable of admitting that we don't know at this stage and it is possible that homosexuality is a choice. This is irrelevant to me, though, because even if it *is* a choice, it's my choice to make, and it's no one's business what the outcome of that decision is.