I want to believe...

[Arakasi]

I have nothing that I believe in that isn't supported by facts and/or logic.
Although I still find that I am in the minority when it comes to not believing in 'free will'.

Determinist here too. I just never talk about it because i realized the human psyche is the most amazing free will simulator in a determinist universe. The only way to retain sanity is to just act like you have free will since our entire consciousness is designed around the elaborate ruse. Life is easier if you just play along.

Oh, of course one must still act like one has free will. I can imagine people being all depressed and not wanting to do anything because of it, but that's just plain stupidity.

 

[repeating integers]

That we're living in a computer simulation of a universe. Not like "Everyone's a program, and I'm the only real sentient/sapient being" solipsism a la Breakfast of Champions, but like "We're all programs." I also don't think it'd be like the Matrix where we're essentially brains in jars, but we're actually programs with no corporeal form in the universe in which our simulation exists.

I mean... the way in which our universe works is eerily similar to good computational practice. We have a minimum temperature (absolute zero.) We have a maximum speed (light in a vacuum.) We have an apparent minimum size (one Planck length/volume.) We have an apparent start date (the Big Bang.) The "randomness" of quantum mechanics could be explained by pseudorandom number generation, and Heisenberg's uncertainty principle states we can only know position/momentum to within certain tolerances.

It's not something that affects the way I act. (If it's false, it'd fuck up my life. If it's true, my acting differently wouldn't change anything.) But it's something I can't get out of the back of my mind.

Same. This universe, with all its various imperfections, has always seemed to me like a computer simulation experiment - probably created in a universe that actually works properly, without all this silly crap about entropy and the 2nd law of thermodynamics, to see what it would be like in a universe that's about as unintuitive and dangerous as you can make it.

 

[Senare]

Hypnosis. It has been surprisingly hard to try out properly. And I can't feel that I can let such possibly fantastic potential slide without giving it a proper go.

 

[The Nossa]

I believe in a theory of which is classified

 

[Ed130 The Vanguard]

To think we are the only intelligent life in this vast plane of existance called the universe is not only wrong, but also extremely arrogant.

Wheather or not other intelligent life wants to contact us is another matter entirely.

 

[Bat Vader]

I believe in ghosts to a small extent. When I was a kid a door opened and closed in front of me once while I was alone in a 170 year old building. No wind. Alone.

I believe in ghosts as well. When I was a teenager, I saw what's commonly known as a "spectral orb". Zipped across the room in front of me, from one wall into another. Don't know what it was up to, but I'd say it looked pretty urgent.

Was quite the shock at the time. I was, at the time, a believer in science. "Always a rational explanation" y'know, that guy. Or at least, that was the kind of person I was growing into, like I said, I was a teenager at the time.

It kinda led to me losing enthusiasm for it. For a little while, you could even say I was against it, but I grew out of that. You can't just throw away all of that, y'know? Still, blew my world wipe open at the time.

I also once slept in a hotel on holiday with my family that, by the morning, we all swore was haunted. Unexplained footsteps, voices from rooms that weren't occupied, and the worst part by far, an unexplainable darkness. Like a living shadow. It had to have been about 11 PM, and suddenly, it got really, really dark. No other lights went off, the one in the hall outside the room was still on, the one in the bathroom still off, the ones outside in the street, still on. No change in light sources, but still, that darkness. a few minutes later, back to normal. At the time I dismissed it as illusion, but in the morning I found everyone else saw the same kind of thing, all of us having trouble sleeping.

With time and evidence, you may have been able to convince me I imagined that spectral orb. But the hotel? I will always think whatever happened there, it wasn't fuckin' normal.

If that happened to me while I was staying in a hotel I would be checked out and finding a different hotel in minutes. While I am not a firm believer in ghosts or other supernatural stuff the thought of it still utterly scares me though.

 

[Starik20X6]

I believe alien life exists. The sheer size of the universe makes me pretty confident that the conditions necessary for life to have been met on more than one lump of rock.

When I was a teenager, I saw what's commonly known as a "spectral orb". Zipped across the room in front of me, from one wall into another. Don't know what it was up to, but I'd say it looked pretty urgent.

Was quite the shock at the time. I was, at the time, a believer in science. "Always a rational explanation" y'know, that guy. Or at least, that was the kind of person I was growing into, like I said, I was a teenager at the time.

It kinda led to me losing enthusiasm for it. For a little while, you could even say I was against it, but I grew out of that. You can't just throw away all of that, y'know? Still, blew my world wipe open at the time.

What you probably saw was ball lightning [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ball_lightning], a bizarre weather phenomenon that science still doesn't quite understand despite knowing about it for a few hundred years. It's estimated 1 in 20 people have seen ball lightning, but most write it off as a trick of the light, a UFO or a passing hadouken.

 

[The Funslinger]

Actually, since YouTube threads are getting big today, I'm pretty sure Ray William Johnson made a deal with Satan in exchange for popularity. No doubt in my mind about that.

If that's true, then hopefully it's like the Crossroads deals from Supernatural. After 10 years of enjoying whatever he asked for, at the stroke of midnight, hell hounds come, massacre his body to rip out the soul, and drag it to hell.

OT: As others have said, I have a faint open mindedness towards ghosts. And by sheer probability, I'm fairly certain alien life exists somewhere in the universe.

 

[Doclector]

I believe alien life exists. The sheer size of the universe makes me pretty confident that the conditions necessary for life to have been met on more than one lump of rock.

When I was a teenager, I saw what's commonly known as a "spectral orb". Zipped across the room in front of me, from one wall into another. Don't know what it was up to, but I'd say it looked pretty urgent.

Was quite the shock at the time. I was, at the time, a believer in science. "Always a rational explanation" y'know, that guy. Or at least, that was the kind of person I was growing into, like I said, I was a teenager at the time.

It kinda led to me losing enthusiasm for it. For a little while, you could even say I was against it, but I grew out of that. You can't just throw away all of that, y'know? Still, blew my world wipe open at the time.

What you probably saw was ball lightning [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ball_lightning], a bizarre weather phenomenon that science still doesn't quite understand despite knowing about it for a few hundred years. It's estimated 1 in 20 people have seen ball lightning, but most write it off as a trick of the light, a UFO or a passing hadouken.

Keeping in mind this was in a closed room, no windows, let alone open ones, and it left not a single mark on either wall. Would I be wrong in assuming ball lightning would need to come from outside, and would do some damage or at least leave some sort of mark? I mean, I'm not talking down to you, at the time, ball lightning was one of the earliest possibilities I considered.

 

[BanicRhys]

I want to believe that somewhere out there there's someone who could love me.
I want to believe that I will achieve more than mediocrity.
I want to believe that somewhere out there there's an alien that wishes it could explore the universe as much as I do.
I want to believe that Versus 13 will come out and be good.

 

[Starik20X6]

When I was a teenager, I saw what's commonly known as a "spectral orb". Zipped across the room in front of me, from one wall into another. Don't know what it was up to, but I'd say it looked pretty urgent.

Was quite the shock at the time. I was, at the time, a believer in science. "Always a rational explanation" y'know, that guy. Or at least, that was the kind of person I was growing into, like I said, I was a teenager at the time.

It kinda led to me losing enthusiasm for it. For a little while, you could even say I was against it, but I grew out of that. You can't just throw away all of that, y'know? Still, blew my world wipe open at the time.

What you probably saw was ball lightning [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ball_lightning], a bizarre weather phenomenon that science still doesn't quite understand despite knowing about it for a few hundred years. It's estimated 1 in 20 people have seen ball lightning, but most write it off as a trick of the light, a UFO or a passing hadouken.

Keeping in mind this was in a closed room, no windows, let alone open ones, and it left not a single mark on either wall. Would I be wrong in assuming ball lightning would need to come from outside, and would do some damage or at least leave some sort of mark? I mean, I'm not talking down to you, at the time, ball lightning was one of the earliest possibilities I considered.

That's one of the best things about ball lightning, in my opinion- we've got no idea how it works. Apparently it can indeed pass through walls with no trace, or it can destroy the whole damn house. There are even reports of it passing through a stewardess mid-flight [http://theconversation.edu.au/ball-lightning-exists-but-what-on-earth-is-it-10419]. Or, it can wreck up the Irish countryside [http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg19225831.700-blackholes-in-your-backyard.html].

 

[Zantos]

I believe that there is no point in living. I just live because I am alive, not because I have a goal.

Also, pyramids were built by aliens.

Dude, did you not see the Kurt Russell documentary on that?

OT: I want to believe that there is some way to effectively move faster than the speed of light. Be it compressing the space in front of you, moving into an alternate dimension, moving into an alternate dimension inhabited exclusively by beings of pestilence, violence, orgies and upturned plugs, encasing black holes in magnets, using distances to measure time, whatever. I want to believe we can have some cool sci-fi future where humans traipse across the galaxy led by French people sounding English and beards. A fairly restrictive speed limit is going to ruin that.

 

[CommanderL]

I believe in aliens. I mean the universe is infinitely big so there's going to be SOME life out there...

I believe this too there are billions of planets in this galaxy and billions of galaxy's there has to be some else out there but we may never meet them

 

[Popadoo]

I believe in a thing called love.
Just listen to the rhythm of ma' heart.

OT:
I think it's ridiculous to say Earth is the only planet with life. I don't believe aliens have visited Earth, but just thinking about the scale of the universe makes me 100% positive there is life elsewhere, be it bacteria or intelligent.

 

[xshadowscreamx]

its imposable that theirs no life out there in the infinite universe.

''i want to believe'' is also a boring x-files movie

 

[Catfood220]

I have a firm belief in ghosts. My most recent encounter with one happened last year. I was on standby and got called out to the Grimsby branch. My workmate and I did the removal and had finished doing what we had to and he said that he was going to make a phone call. I decided to go to the toilet while I waited for him. Anyway, I was taking a leak when suddenly I got the feeling that someone was standing right behind me, you know that feeling that someone has invaded your personal space. This is worrying because there are only 2 of us in the building, I have to wonder my my workmate is standing behind me watching me pee. I finish up and turn to give him a bollocking for obvious reasons, but as I turn around, I catch a glimpse of a black figure behind me but as I finish my turn there is no one behind me.

Creeped out slightly I go and find my colleage and tell him what I saw, leaving out that I had caught a glimpse of the black figure. To my surprise he knows all about this and says "oh yeah, thats George". Apparently the Grimsby branch is haunted and he starts telling me stuff like times that he has put down a tool he was using, only for it to disappear and be found days later in another part of the building. Or the fact that every now and then he would see a black figure out of the corner of his eye and figure that it was a workmate playing a trick on him only to find that the person he thought it was was on the other side of the building. That really took me by surprise because I figured that I had imagined seeing the black figure.

Another thing that got me, when I was telling people about that, they told me that they had noticed other things like whistling. I heard whistling that night as I was looking for my colleage, I just assumed it was him, but the sound of the whistling was too loud to of travelled all the way from the office where he was.

 

[Doclector]

When I was a teenager, I saw what's commonly known as a "spectral orb". Zipped across the room in front of me, from one wall into another. Don't know what it was up to, but I'd say it looked pretty urgent.

Was quite the shock at the time. I was, at the time, a believer in science. "Always a rational explanation" y'know, that guy. Or at least, that was the kind of person I was growing into, like I said, I was a teenager at the time.

It kinda led to me losing enthusiasm for it. For a little while, you could even say I was against it, but I grew out of that. You can't just throw away all of that, y'know? Still, blew my world wipe open at the time.

What you probably saw was ball lightning [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ball_lightning], a bizarre weather phenomenon that science still doesn't quite understand despite knowing about it for a few hundred years. It's estimated 1 in 20 people have seen ball lightning, but most write it off as a trick of the light, a UFO or a passing hadouken.

Keeping in mind this was in a closed room, no windows, let alone open ones, and it left not a single mark on either wall. Would I be wrong in assuming ball lightning would need to come from outside, and would do some damage or at least leave some sort of mark? I mean, I'm not talking down to you, at the time, ball lightning was one of the earliest possibilities I considered.

That's one of the best things about ball lightning, in my opinion- we've got no idea how it works. Apparently it can indeed pass through walls with no trace, or it can destroy the whole damn house. There are even reports of it passing through a stewardess mid-flight [http://theconversation.edu.au/ball-lightning-exists-but-what-on-earth-is-it-10419]. Or, it can wreck up the Irish countryside [http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg19225831.700-blackholes-in-your-backyard.html].

Heh, maybe Ball Lightning IS a ghost. Fuck knows, all I know is having learnt that, I'm glad whatever that thing was didn't decide to go apeshit.