Things You Can't Prove, But Believe

[Ryuo]

Luck by far. Amongst my friends I have gained a (joking) reputation as an Aitvaras (A mythological creature that has a luck draining effect)

I'm an extremely lucky individual, but I have noticed (and my friends noticed, too) that I get luckier when in company of others. While their luck drops inversely to my good luck.

Among things that I cannot 'prove' Luck is what I stand by, firmly.

Lucks a tricky one though.

Take this:

You would call somebody who survived a shark attack lucky right?

But surely they were unlucky to be attacked by a shark in the first place.

It just seems like lucks about perspective.

"It is certain ,only with either fortune or discipline can catastrophe be avoided. Of the two , the only one you can never run out of is discipline."

I tend to live by that too. Thought it was relevant.

Anyway personal things i can't prove but believe in, human goodness. I believe most people are genuinely good. But the world and life can get in the way of that sometimes.

There is a quote I picked up (and use) from a wonderful game (The Darkness 1)

'Luck isn't always luck, sometimes it's preparation meeting opportunity'

Makes a lot of sense to me. (The quote in the game may be from another place, but I'm unaware of it, if so)

A way I like to think about it, and joke about frequently, is that on character creation I allocated max points to luck and neglected all others.

I'm not a lottery winning sort of lucky, but more of a situational, short-term, kind of lucky.

Living by luck however I do keep in mind, that just because probability seems in my favor, the coin doesn't always land on heads.

 

[Wingmna]

Evolution.

Oh wait, that's right, I don't believe that.

 

[teebeeohh]

the way we run our country is horrible and inefficient but it's the best we have.
i believe that science will one day remove the requirement for people to work in order to survive so that people can do shit they love without having to worry about getting payed. I believe people are fundamentally horrible, except to each other.

i believe there is a least one kind of sentient live aware of our existence but they don't interact with us for whatever reason.

the best day i ever had was a Tuesday in the summer of 08 that i spend sitting under a tree reading.

 

[someonehairy-ish]

I believe a lot of things that I can't personally prove, but most of them are things that at least can be proven.
Amongst the things I can't prove believe anyway:

That there is no God and there are no gods. If there is anything that could be called a higher power, they are unlikely to be taking much interest in human affairs or even be aware of us:
That We are a cosmic accident.
That pop music is bollocks.
That Jim Sterling is, in fact, the God Emperor.

Evolution.

Oh wait, that's right, I don't believe that.

In favour of what?
Evolution is pretty easy to prove, beyond reasonable doubt. For example: We know that natural selection works because we're adept at manipulating it to produce better cattle/new dog breeds/pretty flowers. In the wild the process would be more random, selecting only for traits that help species survive, but the principle is still the same. And if we know that natural selection works, logic shows that if life has been around for billions of years, natural selection must have been altering it for all that time. Which is a (very simplified) version of what evolution is.
Also the fossil record and genetics both show it convincingly. Hell, even a half decent anatomist could tell you that the muscular and skeletal structure in a human is close enough to that of an ape for a link to obvious.

 

[TheRightToArmBears]

I'm not going to get into the whole 'God' thing... Personally I think there's a chance that god exists, but it's so tiny I may as well be an atheist.

I can't actually think of any serious things that I believe without proof. I think, recently, I've come to just accept the world as I see it and I don't feel the need to believe in an afterlife or whatever. Things are cool just the way they are, I'm not going to bother quibbling over a god or anything that probably doesn't exist. If god is real, he's not going to begrudge me for that.

 

[someonehairy-ish]

snip.

I've always wondered similar things. Time increases relative to gravity, and gravity increases relative to mass... doesn't this mean that time passes at an infinite rate to a singularity (point with infinite mass, no volume?) Or is there enough of a distinction between energy and mass for it to be the other way; no time passes to a singularity?

I've always thought that the universe is probably on an infinite loop of expanding, contracting back and then expanding again... big bang, big crunch, big bang etc... but I have no idea whether that's possible.

I need to redo physics :/

 

[Zyxx]

Oh, all manner of things. I've had many experiences that lead me to believe, or at least suspect, that there's more going on in the universe than we imagine. Of course I realize that such anecdotal evidence doesn't suffice as scientific proof, and for all you know I'm crazy or making things up. Sometimes I suspect that myself, but that's okay. I'm fine with the notion that I'm wrong on some of these things, because most of them don't matter or at least don't have any impact on my practical, day-to-day life anyway. Some of them even help ensure my day-to-day life will continue, because if I genuinely believed that I and everyone I love were nothing but irrelevant chunks of meat with no greater purpose than to fuck until our planet gets obliterated, I'd probably just go ahead and kill myself rather than continue this facade any longer.

However, I have no reason to force my beliefs on anyone else. If you are comfortable with, for example, the above notion of meat-sackiness, I have no vested interest in changing your mind.

 

[Tyrant55]

I'm not going to get into the whole 'God' thing... Personally I think there's a chance that god exists, but it's so tiny I may as well be an atheist.

I can't actually think of any serious things that I believe without proof. I think, recently, I've come to just accept the world as I see it and I don't feel the need to believe in an afterlife or whatever. Things are cool just the way they are, I'm not going to bother quibbling over a god or anything that probably doesn't exist. If god is real, he's not going to begrudge me for that.

While this thread is not meant to be about religion, this post actually sums up my thoughts on it quite nicely.

 

[Jake0fTrades]

Gravity is just a theory.

 

[Guitar Gamer]

A fantastic question.
I honestly believe that the head of my provincial and federal governments in my nation are actively malevolent. Probably due to ideological disputes do I believe this but I can't really describe a few things they do as anything other than "being jerks"

I believe that the human race will never find peace under it's current system of running itself (that is, any sort of small group making decisions for the rest, no matter how they get to that position) due to population.

That with proper training, I would make a decent leader of a nation, but would probably fail due to not showing enough lee way to world politics in dealing with countries that violate human rights.

Reality is a real thing that has rules to which is follows.

The world belongs to the young who can use it, not the old who've earned it.
that is more of an opinion thing, never mind.

Most head's of large corporations cannot be trusted in earnest as they place too much value on money and not enough on human life.

Human's are different than all other animals. Something more than genetically.

 

[LHZA]

Love conquers all. Ha, but seriously, how about that David Bowie rocks!

 

[Arbi Trax]

More paranoia than a belief, but I've got a sneaking suspicion that people at work think I'm a dick.

 

[Clive Howlitzer]

I don't believe in anything without at least a reasonable amount of actual evidence pointing towards it being true.

 

[ObsidianJones_v1legacy]

I believe that the zombie apocalypse will not only happen, but every time you drive your car, drink some water, or decide to have four babies, you're causing our government to make it happen.

The single greatest deterrent is not nuclear war, it's the lost of the resources that will come from it. We are fretting over gas, we don't know where our food is going to come from, and the water... that's been going down hill for decades. Any war will cause the lost of these precious resources that we are throwing out of whack just by our Jackrabbit breeding. So how to secure these things?

A bio-attack. something that does not cause permanent damage to these resources you want. A bomb blows up on an oil field, and it's gone forever. But if a virus sweeps through the nation, there's minimal damage to the infra-structure and you're ready to loot.

Now, a dangerous airborne plague? Once you release that into the wild, that's it. That was your act of control. You have no idea how it will mutate, or if it will crop up again years after you think it's out of the area.

But a 28 days style rage virus that is limited to the bodily fluids of the infected, compels the body to spray said fluid constantly, and has a infection speed of only 28 seconds? that will spread like wildfire. But through humans*. You put that thing in LA now, by Saturday night, you'd probably have near decimation of the population. Although it couldn't just be one infection zone, you'd have to hit the center and key points around the city limits.

Also, Penn State is researching the Ophiocordyceps camponoti-balzani Fungus [http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2035531/Genetic-secret-virus-turns-caterpillars-zombies-discovered.html], also know as the Fungus that inspired Naughty Dog's new game The last of Us [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qLGxubfC1Ik] Also? Penn State isolated the Gene that allows for the zombie-ism.

So... How's your Bug Out Kit?


*I'm fully aware this could probably mutate also. But eh, I play games. We're a hopeful sort.

 

[direkiller]

Not a big conspiracy theorist myself, but I do think that the moon may have a greater effect on people's behavior than we realize. We are made of mostly water after all.

Dafuq? Is this some sort of tidal logic?
I know you can't prove it, but please explain at least a basis for such a thought...

I believe there is no separate part of me such as a 'soul'. I can't prove it doesn't exist, but then again, I see no reason to believe something with such a complete lack of proof.

I know you weren't talking to me, but if I remember right apparently a full moon effects crime, so there is some logic behind it.

The only crime correlation connected to the full moon is reckless driving
It has everything to do with lighting.


OT: I believe there is life out there.
coming to this planet is another story but statistically there should be life out there

 

[Idocreating]

That EA and Activision have both discovered some form of energy or eternal life forumla that requires being the biggest and most twattest company possible and are constantly duking it out to claim the prize.

 

[conflictofinterests]

Also, I believe that there are many undiscovered reasons why fruits and vegetables are good for us that go beyond vitamins, minerals, and fiber.

Actually, there are discovered things beyond vitamins, minerals and fiber. There are chemicals in wild plants that help protect against certain things that are useful for the same purpose in animals that consume them, and being removed from those threats in a domesticated environment, the plants don't produce those beneficial chemicals and are less great for you. Also, the methods of fertilization focus on the highest needs of the plant, which is like focusing only on the protein, carbohydrate, and fat intake in humans. Micro nutrients were a key discovery in nutrition, and people keep discovering other things that we NEED (just in smaller amounts) that we didn't know about before.

 

[conflictofinterests]

God exists. I know he's there but I cannot prove it. Doesnt mean I am wrong at all.

Actually if you say "God exists and that's a fact", you do have to have some kind of proof.

Also, which god? Zeus? Hera? Poseidon? Or one of the less popular ones?

Not necessarily. A fact is a fact regardless of whether people acknowledge it or understand it or are even aware of it or whatever. It is what it is without any external influence. Proof is there to appease perspectives, views, beliefs and what not.

You guys are coming at this problem from two different perspectives, ie. one from the conclusion and one from "knowability" (so to speak). A fact will, indeed, be, regardless of supporting evidence. However, if we didn't have that conclusion, we could only arrive at it through supporting evidence. Proof is there as a matter of practicality. If you assume nothing, because your assumptions may be incorrect, proof is the tool for discovering what is practically applicable in whatever situation.