Truth: Faith or Fact
Category: Science... Thinking Allowed...
Posted Wednesday, January 05, 2005 at 10:50 PM [GMT-6]

120 "third culture scientists and science-minded thinkers" have answered the question "what do you believe is true even though you cannot prove it?" over at The World Question Center.

This is an excerpt from one of my favorites:

I can't prove it, but I am pretty sure that people gain a selective advantage from believing in things they can't prove. I am dead serious about this. People who are sometimes consumed by false beliefs do better than those who insist on evidence before they believe and act. People who are sometimes swept away by emotions do better in life than those who calculate every move. -- RANDOLPH NESSE, M.D., Psychiatrist, U. of Michigan

This is the most representative:

I believe nothing to be true (clearly real) if it cannot be proved. -- MARIA SPIROPULU, Physicist, currently at CERN

But this is the one I hang my hat on:

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). -- DAVID MYERS, Psychologist, Hope College

Needless to say, David doesn't have a lot of company in this group. More's the pity.

Tip o'the hat (real or otherwise) to Keith Devens.

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