Agnostic.com

59 4

Agnostics/atheists do you require evidence for other things in life, too?

We require evidence to believe in god. Do we also require evidence to believe in other things in life? Better put, do some of us believe in things for which there is no evidence?

What am I talking about? All kinds of things: Astrology, Myers-Briggs, Organic produce, juice cleanses, the list goes on.

If someone pointed out that there was no evidence behind your belief, would you be willing to change it?

jwd45244 7 Aug 12
Share

Enjoy being online again!

Welcome to the community of good people who base their values on evidence and appreciate civil discourse - the social network you will enjoy.

Create your free account

59 comments (51 - 59)

Feel free to reply to any comment by clicking the "Reply" button.

0

Actually, yes. I am skeptical of anything or one if what they say sounds off to me. I do admit I am nieve and too trusting. After being a repeated fool now I'll say ok, then research.

I don't fucntion too much on "belief" to begin with but yes, show me I'm wrong and I'll adjust.

0

No need take fun out of life, leave that to the church

0

Of course, why not? I remember finding breast lumps about 30 years ago, in my 40's, and being told in no uncertain terms that coffee was the culprit, I must never have coffee again. Now, it's "drink 2-3 cups a day for heart health".... I never gave up the coffee, anyway!

0

I would like have some evidence of any god . But even if is true . I decided myself stay without gods

All other factors can be eliminated in a discussion of belief in a deity except personal experience. f another person tells you s/he has had a personal experience with God--He spoke with the person or some other tangible, physical event---you can neither prove nor disprove that experience. Your only response has to be that you had not experienced such an event, not that you either believe or disbelieve it. All other religious beliefs can be (and have been) dispatched rather easily.

0

If you can demonstrate a claim with testable, repeatable verifiable falsifiable facts, I will adjust my beliefs to reflect reality. I accept no major assertion without supporting evidence.

0

I wrote a post on here some time back stating that we all believe in magic. As you can imagine I got quite a few nay sayers but the gist of it goes like this.
Belief is not the same as knowledge or reason. We may empirically know that urging a sports star on TV will have no effect whatsoever on the outcome, yet we still do so. Similarly a golfer will lean to the left or right in an endeavor to alter the trajectory of an already stuck ball. Away from sports, how many have not openly wished for a traffic light to change and said "yes" when it does? Maybe pushed the button of a lift or crossing more than once or just pushed it when there is other people waiting, who obviously pressed it before you showed up. Will your magic fingers tip the balance and make things happen faster? Of course not but that does not stop us from believing it might, otherwise why do we do it?
You may scoff at this idea but think on it next time you cuss an incompetent, slow or tailgating driver who is in no position to hear you

0

I don't believe in myers-briggs as they have already been discredited even before I really knew much about them - Seems more like a party game than something to believe in. I don't disrespect party games or Halloween fun - I don't believe in astrology though I read my stars in the paper for fun . I have worked as a lab tech in many places one was a processed cheese factory all the cheese was the same, every process they went through was the same, except for the labels which were stuck on by gigantic steel machines so all the major supermarkets brands were exactly the same. Cosmetics also , just put in different pots different prices Absolutely I would change my mind if I found out that was being had - and it isnt a belief for me its just identifying the scams

0

No not really.

I don't necessarily believe that a juice cleanse will do anything for your health but it doesn't mean I haven't tried it. I won't recommend something that hasn't been verified however I'll still try it myself.

In addition you've grouped some things together with varying degrees of relevance to your point on "belief". Astrology has no backing that I've ever heard, MBTI has some backing but most psychologists agree that it has little merit and work on expanded personality tests, organic food is healthier than artificial as it can be processed better, but the degree of difference has skepticism, and juice cleanses absolutely affect your body but not in the ways that most people hope they will. Grouping things like that lowers everything to the lowest common denominator and they're not all equal in that regard.

Besides of all of that, if you've ever recognized the placebo effect you'd know that if I convinced someone bashing their face against a car windshield would cause them to lose weight, I may build up market share in Safelite. Belief in and of itself can have beneficial effects and removing that would simply negate the potential benefit. In terms of religion, for thousands of years millions of people have been good only for the sake of going to heaven, yes they've also done some bad things and I don't want to side track the discussion, but if there was no belief in god, there would be a lot more people doing very immoral things.

I'd agree that spreading misinformation is harmful, but if someone loves to do a juice cleanse and it makes them feel better and they're convinced it has beneficial effects, as long as they don't recommend it to anyone else is there harm?

Organic is a marketing ploy. MBTI was made up by a mother and her daughter over a kitchen table. Your body cleanses itself. That is the function of digestion, defecation, urination, persperation and resperation

@jwd45244 "Organic" is a real term that has been adopted as a marketing ploy and used to mislead people, much like "patriotic".

Your body does clean itself yet if I pour bleach into it my digestion system can't quite manage and I die, if I pour alcohol down it my body reacts poorly and I see double and vomit, your body cannot and does not deal with everything you pour into it in the same perfect manner therefore on a lesser level, even food items that you consider to be the same are not which is why you need to eat from separate food groups.

The MBTI is far from perfect and some could even say more harmful than useful however it is also used as a basis for psychologists to build a more comprehensive personality mapper so your overused quip about the "kitchen table" is nothing more than that. Much of innovation happens in a garage but the kitchen table seems to be pertinent somehow in everyone's slandering of the MBTI as if you need a lab for psychology.

Astrology has been tested repeatedly and found to have no bearing or basis for the aspects of a person's personality however when itemized with the others once again proves my point regarding the "lowest common denominator". People group things together that they disapprove of and throw in one that's universally considered trite as a persuasion tactic. It happens ad nauseum in politics and should be avoided if at all possible.

@mattersauce MBTI is pure woo hoo. It has no scientific basis. It was created after the mother read one of Jung's books and told her daughter about it. They took what she read and generalized it. Neither mother nor daughter had any training in Jungian thought. It has been proven over and over that MBTI has no merit whatsovever.

@jwd45244 The method in which something was discovered nor the background of a creator actually invalidate the merit of an idea or concept. Your repeated attack on the creators instead of the MBTI itself is a useful debate strategy for people who are easily drawn off topic and get dazzled by character attacks. Unfortunately it proves only that you've bought into the negative side talking points instead of reviewing the actual merit of the MBTI and the fact that it has been used by psychologists to begin building the Big 5 and analyze how the concept of the MBTI can be improved.

0

I am not looking for evidence to walk a spiritual path. It simply makes me feel better. If religion,God, Jesus does that for someone else, good. As long as they don't push it on me.
I have participated in all that is labeled super natural. I enjoy it.
None of these things, spiritual walks not super natural are proven true ..but if it makes me feel better believing some of it, why not?
It harmless. If a good friend tried to talk me out of any..I would get new friends.

Write Comment
You can include a link to this post in your posts and comments by including the text q:153949
Agnostic does not evaluate or guarantee the accuracy of any content. Read full disclaimer.