I believe the Iran-Contra Affair of 1986 was funded by the CIA selling drugs in America, as reported by the San Jose Mercury News. Of course, the CIA did its own internal investigation and announced that no such thing happened. Uh-huh.
I believe the Bush Administration (though not GWB himself…he’s just a patsy after all) knew about the 9/11 attacks beforehand, but did nothing to stop them, because a major terrorist attack on that scale would give them the perfect excuse to start this dumb war in the Middle East, doubling gas prices and making them all filthy rich in the process. (To say nothing of those privacy-restricting laws that were also passed.)
I believe most inanimate objects, especially electronics, are sentient on some level, though not in a way we could possibly comprehend. A rock would take 10,000 years to say “Good Morning,” if it could talk.
Not to hijack, but I read an editorial in the Chicago Tribune today that said the “CIA sold drugs!” was a misrepresentation of the Mercury News’ reporter’s article in order to smear the reporter, and that the original merely stated that the CIA turned a blind eye to the drug dealing done by its Contra “allies” in order not to make waves.
I believe that there have been/are/will be many, many (possibly an infinite number of) Big Bangs; that each one produces a Universe which pops into existence and eventually bursts. Like bubbles in beer foam. When they’ve all burst, what’s left is probably warm, stale and flat.
I also believe that the Universe (our particular bubble) is simply teeming with life (not necessarily “as we know it”), and the more advanced species have outgrown any belief in a God, and are thus capable of coexisting.
Perhaps, but the rumor was alive long before the Mercury article. Besides, the CIA needs money that’s “off the books” for all its secret projects, and what better way to make a quick buck than the drug trade? And isn’t it interesting how Noriega suddenly went from protected ally to notorious drug smuggler, just a few years after the Iran-Contra shit hit the fan?
Not that I can prove any of this…that’s what this thread’s all about, after all.
[ol]
[li]That there is a God, although I can’t guess on its exact form.[/li][li]That some form of our conscious is eternal.[/li][li]That “Artificial Intelligence” will always be a pipe dream: consciousness and emotion will never be created by man (the ol’ in-out in-out excepted).[/li][li]That we’ll never completely “figure out” physics.[/li][/ol]
(These are things I think are true. I “believe” them, but I always have my doubts.)
When you die, that’s it. No heaven, no hell, nothing. You cease to exist and you ain’t ever coming back.
There’s other intelligent life out there in the universe somewhere, but it’s really really rare and really really far apart. So there will never be any interstellar community like in the sci fi stories.
Pro wrestling is real. OK, I don’t really believe this last one.
I believe that there exists a coherent, consistent system of ethics that can be logically derived from non-religious principles, and people will find it more persuasive than religion if they open-mindedly examine a logic-style proof of it.
People who adhere to divine command theories of ethics do so out of egotism - they don’t want to go to hell. Regardless of the fact that I can’t answer any questions about this system, because I haven’t derived it, I believe it exists, I believe it can be non-egotistical, and I believe that rational people can be convinced of its usefulness. I believe that it will be harder to dismiss the rules of this ethical system as ‘stupid’ (the way many dismiss no-sex-outside-of-marriage) and that it can be created without undesirable corollaries like “A man having sex with another man is an abomination.”
I also believe I’ve made several potentially offensive generalizations. I believe in the decency of people here in taking this post as it’s intended and not haranguing me about sex outside of marriage or homosexuality.
PS I wish I’d come up with this myself, but I was eating lunch with a bunch of physicists the other day, who’d read the article that inspired the OP, and that answer was suggested by one of them.
I believe there is more to the world than what we physically experience day to day; not necessarily that I believe in things like ghosts or ETs or spirits, but I believe there are many things science has yet to discover that technology just isn’t capable of proving or understanding right now.
I also believe it is impossible to know everything.
a) The scientific method is the most clever, useful thing that has ever been concocted by humanity.
b) In the future (on the order of 100-1000 years from now) humans will come up with a way of thinking of, learning about, and questioning the Universe that is much, much better than the scientific method.
I believe, without any form of proof whatsoever, that we are all existing in an act of collective consciousness and, in essense, creating reality. I believe that we can have world peace if that is what we choose to create.
I often wonder if, but am not sure I believe, the whole of time is occurring simultaneously and changing moment by moment.
I believe that there are enough resources in the world for every citizen of the planet to have enough of what he needs and it is our unwillingness to share that creates our own want.
I believe that if there is a God, she doesn’t care what we believe about her because she doesn’t need our belief.
I believe that Oswald was a lone shooter but that he was hired by the CIA.
I also believe that GW Bush will leave office in disgrace.
I believe very strongly that I am up too late and am likely sounding like a loon.
