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What do you believe but cannot prove?
Posts
Well, I certainly hope you believe it. I suspect your grounds of proof are a little too rigorous right now.
I believe that the workings of the world are distant and cold. I feel less an agent than I do a pawn. I can't prove my powerlessness, or weakness, but I feel it nonetheless and am convinced.
But if you're in a game of all-pawns, does it matter?
Well, that depends.
You're only in a position of inferiority if there is something superior to you.
Of course I believe it (you know, the point of the thread). And there are some non-rigorous proofs, such as assuming that my mind is worthy and that other minds are like mine, therefore all are worthy... But regardless, I find that requiring proof of things tends toward being humane in most cases. For example, I cannot prove (and do not believe) that some minds are worthy of more respect than others.
Now we're getting into the area where super-precise terminology is indispensable.
The individual words you use are mundane--and for that matter, the sentence itself is as well--but I need to use that phrase all the time, I think.
Thus, Shamus's First Rule of Life: Don't fuck with the undead.
<3
the comments pages at smh.com.au are full of fucking stupid.
I've won 2 vacations (real vacations, not the sit down and talk to the timeshare people), small wins in the lottery twice (couple hundred, but I was just playing the little quick scratch ones), won a free laptop, and a bunch of other cool things have happened that just make me think that I might be lucky.
A lot of people who know me say I'm lucky, charmed, blessed, whatever. But I truly believe there is some intangible SOMETHING that just dictates how fortunate someone is.
I believe we are fucked!
But I can't prove it.
Well, that depends on what you mean by trolling.
But in all seriousness, what do I believe that I cannot prove? I believe that life exists around other stars.
I believe it comes from lack of specificity, resulting in a poorly phrased assertion.
Drunks Against Mad Mothers
I believe that people who believe in ghosts do so because of dissatisfaction with reality and desire for something unexplainable and mystical.
I agree.
The sad thing is (and I don't want to be disagreeing with people's beliefs!) that there are multiple factions, some Islamic Fundamentalist and others American hawk, who are hoping to see more military conflicts in the Middle East.
It's weird to think that, logically, only one side can profit from such a course. But multiple sides believe (irrationally, in at least one case) that they'd be the ones to gain more than they lose. It's like watching a poker hand unfold in which every side is totally overestimating the strength of their hand. You know someone's going to learn a very expensive lesson.
Pokemans D/P: 1289 4685 0522
what the fuck?
I believe all of that is bullshit.
Also, from GroundReport.com -
"Now I present to you Billy Connolly’s atomic theory: if an atom is a mini solar system and everything that has a molecular structure is basically made up of atoms, then how do we know if our solar system is as big as we think it is? Atoms are the building blocks of all things. For example, if you take two hydrogen atoms and an oxygen atom you get a water molecule; in fact, 66% of the human body is made up of these water molecules. Therefore if our solar system is constructed like an atom, couldn’t that mean we are part of a table leg or any other organism?"
Nothing's forgotten, nothing is ever forgotten
I also believe everyone is a perv - has a kink. There's no such thing as vanilla tastes - just denial.
I believe anger comes out of fear. I believe guilt is a pointless emotion.
I believe guns and other weapons shouldn't be widely available.
I believe the people in power in the world are fucking evil and that most people won't admit to themselves because it's terrifying.
I believe that utopia is impossible due to the wide range of human personalities, but that the world of the future will be radically different from today.
Did you just try to prove something you admittedly can't prove, and by using the old "well, it's pretty unlikely, so it's impossible that it could have occurred randomly in an infinitely variable universe" shtick combined with the classic "there couldn't concievably be life that has different environmental requirements from ours" assumption?
Drunks Against Mad Mothers
But what if I believe they look like teeny solar systems? What if I believe it really hard?
Drunks Against Mad Mothers
With luck, your head will explode and save us some valuable oxygen?
As is Rosser's version of the Goedel sentence.
(For those not familiar with the foundations of mathematics literature: the Goedel sentence is an arithmetic sentence that basically states "I'm not provable in arithmetic.")
The solar system model (Bohr model) is the easiest way into teaching quantum mechanical concepts such as quantized orbitals. Now in reality the orbitals of course look nothing like solar systems, but it's the way the concept of orbitals was first thought off in 1900, and it's a relatively logical thing to think.
The fact that high schools never go further and explain "well, that's how it was conceptualized, but upon further inspection, the orbitals look more like (s, p, d, sp3, sp2 etcet), and it's all a matter of statistics where you find an electron at a given point, they do not really have a classical position/momentum at this level of physics" is something i'm not a real fan off, but it's somewhat understandable, given that quantum mechanics is something that's
a) really counterintuitive
b) is almost impossible to understand without considerable math knowledge
c) Has no consistent physical interpretation, except the Copenhagen (which is basicly "It works, it works perfectly, all the time, so do the math, be happy with the results and stop thinking about what you are doing or you will get headaches), which makes a hard sell.
All that being said, i think it would be great to expose kids to QM and Relativistic physics because it has staggering consequences, they're extremely valid, and it really makes you think about the world around you.
Especially in Science, but also in English, it is commonplace to teach simplistic, often untrue things as "building blocks" for future lessons, and by "future lessons" I mean years in the future.
It's very irritating educational methodology.