Tuesday, January 04, 2005

What We Ask of Believers

What do you believe but cannot prove? These answers provided to The Edge aren't particularly imaginative, though I did appreciate psychologist David Myers's humility (I believe it's humility but can't prove it):
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As a Christian monotheist, I start with two unproven axioms:
1. There is a God.
2. It's not me (and it's also not you).

Together, these axioms imply my surest conviction: that some of my beliefs (and yours) contain error. We are, from dust to dust, finite and fallible. We have dignity but not deity.
And that is why I further believe that we should
a) hold all our unproven beliefs with a certain tentativeness (except for this one!),
b) assess others' ideas with open-minded skepticism, and
c) freely pursue truth aided by observation and experiment.
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That's really all us blue-staters ask of you (Jerry F., Pat R., James D., Bill O.). Hold all unproven beliefs with a certain tentativeness -- except this one.

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