Knowledge, belief & agnosticism (Agnosticism)

by David Turell , Friday, March 14, 2008, 15:53 (5880 days ago) @ dhw

"Clayto reports on a theory that life has always been here and the universe has always existed, though both are constantly changing."
 George Jelliss gave us the maxim: "one's belief should be proportional to the evidence".
 
dhw commented " On the understanding that I am using the word "belief" in the sense of an inner conviction that something is true, I would like to find out just what it is that constitutes evidence, 
 I must stress, as George did originally, that this is not about abiogenesis (or about near-death experiences), but about the nature of belief. The answers won't lead us to any of the so-called "deeper" truths, but perhaps they might have a bearing on our social behaviour and the way we use language ... the word "evidence" being one example." - In response to Clayto, the Big Bang involved extreme tempertures and a plasma state without atoms or molecules at first. Life could not have passed thru that transition. Big Bang/Big Crunch theories are disproven by the newly discovered increasingly rapid expansion of the universe thru 'dark energy'. There appears to be no way to prove a cyclical universe. - I applaud dhw in his quest to ask for real evidence, obviously from science, rather than feelings and convictions, not based on hard evidence. We should deal with reasoning before arriving at faith in some concept.