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what_to_believe.html
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<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN">
<html>
<head>
<title>What To Believe?</title>
</head>
<body>
<h1><a href="/SomeClues">SomeClues<a></h1>
<h1>What To Believe?</h1>
<p>
We have some really interesting options in what to believe in
in life.
</p>
<p>
If we would like the approval of a traditional community, we
can simply adopt their beliefs. Most people do.
</p>
<p>
If we are concerned with believing what is True, rather than
what is False, we could look to Religion. Many religions
concern themselves with issues of what is True and what is
False. Let's call these the True Religions, e.g., most versions
of Christianity and Islam. The True Religions assert that
holding the right beliefs is terribly important! And they
tell us what those right beliefs are. Isn't it interesting
that different True Religions disagree on these terribly
important matters?
</p>
<p>
Some religions are designed to free us from our need to
have rigid beliefs. Let's call these the Maybe Religions.
The classic examples of Maybe Religions are Zen Buddism and
Taoism. Are Buddism and Taoism religions? Maybe! Some
versions of Christianity and Islam are also Maybe Religions -
we'll have to look a bit to find them.
</p>
<p>
Many people in the modern world look to Science to find out what
to believe. School science teachers and popular experts on
Science will tell us what to believe. This is quite odd, as
science does not deal in beliefs! The Scientific method is
concerned with constructing and testing models of reality, and
makes no claim about the actual nature of reality, if there is
such a thing as reality and if it has an actual nature.
</p>
<p>
Mathematics provides a pretty firm foundation for belief.
Mathematical methods exist which can often be used to
prove statements true or false beyond a shadow of a doubt.
What's the catch? The statements have to be mathematical claims
about mathematical objects. Mathematics does not apply to the
real world. Fortunately for Science, Mathematics applies quite
nicely to Scientific Models. We have some <a href="mathematics.html">clues about mathematics</a>
</p>
<hr />
<!-- Created: Fri Nov 29 00:50:22 PST 2002 -->
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Last modified: Fri Nov 29 01:35:37 PST 2002
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</body>
</html>