What do you believe without evidence? If anything.

Turtwig

Well folks as the question says, do you believe in anything but know you have little to no actual evidence to back up your position?

The obvious one for me is absolute morality. I believe morality and its standards exist the same way mathematical forms and theorems do.
I also believe that my world view and most of the science I learned is radically wrong.
Oh and that one day we won't need our physical bodies any more and will be able to transfer our consciousness to more physically able machines.

doctoremma

Good question and depends on what level you want to go to....

This morning, I moved lots of colourless, translucent solutions around lots of tubes, with nothing but inferred evidence that there was anything dissolved in said solutions. Tomorrow, a machine will tell me that I made something happen in those tubes. A scientific model will allow me to interpret what apparently happened.

Did it happen though? Who knows?

More seriously. I believe there is life out there, on another planet somewhere.

old hippy

In a universe this vast and infinite, there has to be something alien out there. Now, whether it's sentient gas/algae/amoeba - who knows? I think it's vanity to think alien life would automatically be humanoid - and also a vanity to believe we are all there is.

Mickeroo

doctoremma wrote: »

More seriously. I believe there is life out there, on another planet somewhere.

Me too. I also believe we'll someday manage to travel outside of our own solar system and find some of them.

I can't really think of anything else.

dlofnep

I don't believe in anything as a matter of fact without evidence, but I do suspect some things have a strong probability of being true - even in lack of evidence. Life outside Earth is one of them, as previously highlighted.

Chuck Stone

Other undetected dimensions.

I have no idea why. I guess I like the idea of it.

Turtwig

doctoremma wrote: »

Good question and depends on what level you want to go to....

I have Inception memes on standby so goes as deep as you want to go.

Seriously can't believe I forgot to mention Alien life. Yeah I definitely believe we're not alone in this universe.

old hippy

Chuck Stone wrote: »

Other undetected dimensions.

I have no idea why. I guess I like the idea of it.

Yay! I like the idea of the multiverse (not just a comic book staple but there's plenty of boffins out there who subscribe to it)

Gbear

Nothing that springs to mind.

If I was arguing about something and I discovered that the basis of my argument wasn't grounded in fact I'd change my beliefs accordingly.
So there may be some stuff I believe irrationally but that's only because I haven't got around to thinking about it yet.

doctoremma

Gbear wrote: »

If I was arguing about something and I discovered that the basis of my argument wasn't grounded in fact I'd change my beliefs accordingly.
So there may be some stuff I believe irrationally but that's only because I haven't got around to thinking about it yet.

Agree in principle. I think that you might be able to stretch the bounds of rational thinking to include "probability" though?

Is there any evidence for life on other planets? No.
Is the possibility excluded? No.
Does probability favour it? IMO, yes.
Do I believe there is life on other planets? Yes.
Would I try to conflate my belief with universal truth? No.

Gbear

doctoremma wrote: »

Agree in principle. I think that you might be able to stretch the bounds of rational thinking to include "probability" though?

Is there any evidence for life on other planets? No.
Is the possibility excluded? No.
Does probability favour it? IMO, yes.
Do I believe there is life on other planets? Yes.
Would I try to conflate my belief with universal truth? No.

Yeah. Basically, is there a rational basis for the belief?
So either through empirical observation, probability or mathematical proof, I suppose.

There's a world of difference between requiring specific evidence for life on that planet over there and evidence for there being life somewhere.

robindch

Jernal wrote: »

[...] do you believe in anything but know you have little to no actual evidence to back up your position?

That the best is yet to come?

Turtwig

robindch wrote: »

That the best is yet to come?

Homer Simpson : "Correction : Worst day of your life so far."

Rheo

Life on other planets. It's a very reasonable belief to have without evidence I reckon.

I believe the children are our future.

MagicMarker

That I'm good in bed, I have evidence to support this theory but it's purely anecdotal.

Turtwig

mickrock wrote: »

It seems a lot here believe in neo-Darwinism despite the lack of evidence.

It's funny how creationists always seem to miss the point of everything. I didn't ask what you thought others here believed without evidence, I asked what you yourself believe without evidence. But I guess you did sort of answer that with creationism.

Sycopat

Let's get back on topic shall we?

I believe the world, universe etc. is real.

I believe that sapience is special and should be treasured and respected.

I believe life is extant in the universe, but I also believe complex multicellular life is quite rare.

I believe (perhap's 'am afraid' is a better choice of words?) if we don't get off this planet and start exploiting our solar systems resources within the next 2-3 hundred years, we never will.

krudler

that my washing machine is a sock stealing portal to another dimension.

fatmammycat

krudler wrote: »

that my washing machine is a sock stealing portal to another dimension.

This to the power of infinite suns.

Obliq

robindch wrote: »

That the best is yet to come?

Awww:) That's a glass half full person!

On that note, I'll go with the other dimensions/existence that we can't observe as humans yet. And I'm interested in/alerted to that by the study of the positions of electrons being based on our observational abilities.

Andrewf20

I believe in life on other earth like planets. Thankfully I wont be damned to hell if one day I decide not to believe.

nagirrac

I believe that thoughts do not just relate to our current state of mind but greatly influence who we are as individuals. I do not believe we are robots without free will. I believe we have control over our thoughts and can choose to allow negative or positive thoughts control our lives. I believe focussing on a specific thought pattern can change our brains at a physical level. I believe consciousness is real and is not made of matter or rather matter as we currently understand it. I base this on the belief that if consciousness were made from the matter in our brains it could not act causally on the matter it is made of.

antiskeptic

Jernal wrote: »

Well folks as the question says, do you believe in anything but know you have little to no actual evidence to back up your position?

The obvious one for me is absolute morality. I believe morality and its standards exist the same way mathematical forms and theorems do.
I also believe that my world view and most of the science I learned is radically wrong.
Oh and that one day we won't need our physical bodies any more and will be able to transfer our consciousness to more physically able machines.

If defining evidence as something empirical (of empirically inferrable) then I'd suppose that most on this forum believe only that which is empirically demonstrable constitutes evidence.

There is, of course, no empirical evidence for that belief.

Daftendirekt

I believe that Meat Loaf would, in fact, do that for love, despite his protests to the contrary.

Turtwig

antiskeptic wrote: »

If defining evidence as something empirical (of empirically inferrable) then I'd suppose that most on this forum believe only that which is empirically demonstrable constitutes evidence.

There is, of course, no empirical evidence for that belief.

Great, now how about what you believe without actual evidence?

Oh but yes you are right one central tenet, if you like, of scepticism is that beliefs themselves require evidence.

Zombrex

mickrock wrote: »

It seems a lot here believe in neo-Darwinism despite the lack of evidence.

There not being any evidence and someone being too stupid to understand the evidence are two different things.

As for the question, I believe that tomorrow the universe will function much as it has done in the past, though there is no evidence that this will be the case

Zombrex

antiskeptic wrote: »

If defining evidence as something empirical (of empirically inferrable) then I'd suppose that most on this forum believe only that which is empirically demonstrable constitutes evidence.

There is, of course, no empirical evidence for that belief.

Since when is a definition of a word a "belief" that requires evidence? Evidence based on what?

jank

doctoremma wrote: »

More seriously. I believe there is life out there, on another planet somewhere.

Thats a very interesting point. Many people including many atheists believe that there is live out there in the universe yet there is no proof as such that there is.
However when it comes to 'god' then they don't believe as there is no proof....

Could never get my head around that one. Even Dawkins falls into that trap. How can one believe in something with no proof then be so strong in their belief that there is no god for lack of proof.

Anyway, I also believe that there is life out there somewhere but also believe there is a maker behind the universe. I also believe that us humans have a mighty opinion of ourselves that has no basis in fact on this earth.

Nodin

jank wrote: »

Thats a very interesting point. Many people including many atheists believe that there is live out there in the universe yet there is no proof as such that there is.
However when it comes to 'god' then they don't believe as there is no proof....

.........

There is verifiable life on this planet.

There is no evidence of any supernatural phenomena whatsoever. No ghosts, poltergeists, vampires, werewolves, witches, warlocks, magic, elves, leprachauns, demons, devils or gods. At all. Ne'er a one.

MagicMarker

Well, life isn't an imaginary friend with super powers. We know that life exists on at least one planet, it's not exactly a stretch to believe that it may exist on another in a Universe containing billions and billions of planets.