Comments on: What’s Your Weirdest Belief?

By: Sarah

Sarah — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 00:37:35 +0000

I know this is slightly old, and the post has wandered away from what I wanted to comment on but in response to Daniel; there’s a short story from Orson Scott Card called “Fat Farm” that explores this idea (though in an unrealistic way, admittedly, and it’s also pretty strange). The main character, Barth, pays to be “recreacted” every time his gluttony and deterioration make it impossible for him to function. Little does he know, however, when his double goes out to live, he is shipped out for hard labor–under the rule of previous Barths. The new Barth is ignorant of this forever, until he himself is cloned and cast aside.
Not all that relavent, but an interesting story.

By: Jonathan

Jonathan — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 04:10:56 +0000

My weirdest belief is that three of the last five mass extinctions were caused by intelligent life arising on Earth. In particular, I believe that a species of intelligent dinosaur engineered the mass-extinction by use of a Dr. Strangelove style doomsday device located over the geological formation most likely to result in maximum death.

By: murrowcronkite

murrowcronkite — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 04:34:19 +0000

How “bout magnetic pole shift?

By: AnonyMouse

AnonyMouse — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 04:27:45 +0000

Other strange things I believe? Well…

Shakespeare’s work is both brilliant and very tedious. The man was a genius, but he tended to ramble too much. (I suspect that this may be considered weird, since Shakespeare tends to be a highly polarizing topic.)

But that’s not really weird, so…

I believe that people have different luck wavelengths. That is, some people are natural luck magnets, and things will just fall into their laps for virtually no reason at all, while other people have terrible luck and things never seem to go right. Or maybe there are “luck zones”, where the people living therein just tend to have better luck. The first seems more probable, though.

By: AnonyMouse

AnonyMouse — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 04:12:07 +0000

Marry me, Sock? ;)

By: AnonyMouse

AnonyMouse — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 04:06:19 +0000

I believe that a lot of the medical issues that have become common in recent years (autism, cancer, shortage of males, etc.) are brought about in part by all the synthesized gook that we’ve been taught to rely upon. I’m not talking medicine here – I’m talking hygiene products. All the fancy shampoos, conditioners, facial cleansers, deodorants, hairsprays, and makeup that people – especially women of childbearing age – tend to use has got to have an effect. Consequentially, I’ve completely given up regular hygiene products. Baking soda, vinegar, and Dr. Bronner’s are a bit unorthodox, but they work and I can be sure they’re not going to poison me.

By: AnonyMouse

AnonyMouse — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 03:40:35 +0000

Here's my weird belief: The Postman was a seriously awesome movie. XD Waterworld was crap, though. The problem with their premise was that while humans would evolve to be water-compliant, they would be building on the body they had, not reverting to a system that they had long since abandoned. In other words, Kevin would have a huge lung capacity, not gills. But I guess that's just not sexy enough.

By: wcoenen

wcoenen — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 21:40:00 +0000

Really? I didn’t know that and I was already considering to buy Anathem.
*whips out credit card and surfs to amazon*

By: rodneyAnonymous

rodneyAnonymous — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 17:08:24 +0000

I think, therefore — for all intents and purposes — I am.

By: murrowcronkite

murrowcronkite — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 16:46:45 +0000

I’ve included a link to the site of one of the top researchers into Near Death experiences and the whole life video-playback thing.

http://www.pmhatwater.com/

By: lost in space

lost in space — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 16:24:32 +0000

LOL….realistic?…maybe not, but weird? Yes!
I’m a newbie to this site, and am very glad to have found it. I appreciate the intelligent dialogue, and the kindness that is shown for one anothers ideas. Although I feel I have little to contribute at this time ( in the midst of discovering my own lack of growth as a result of “god life”) I’m finding a sense of relief in reading of others experiences so close to my own. Thank you again.

By: murrowcronkite

murrowcronkite — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 16:04:59 +0000

So Logan I guess you’re saying you totally believe in lying. Cool, lol.

By: murrowcronkite

murrowcronkite — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 15:57:03 +0000

I liked the comment by Yair about Pansychism- the belief that all matter might have some form of conciousness or thinking ability.
This seems to jive with reports of people who recieve organ transplants and then start mysteriously displaying personality traits of the the organ donor.(high sex drive where none was present before,passive personality becomes aggressive etc.).
They also sometimes have dreams about people from the donors life.
This suggests that we think and store memories with more than just our brains.- that the whole body may do some thinking, memory storage.
Thumbs up on the new site Daniel. More functional with the HTML, Reply button etc.

By: murrowcronkite

murrowcronkite — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 15:34:51 +0000

I liked the comment by Yair about Panschism- the belief that all matter might have some form of cociousness or thinking ability.
This seems to jive with reports of people who recieve organ transplants and then start mysteriously displaying personality traits of the the organ donor.(high sex drive where none was present before,passive personality becomes aggressive etc.).
They also sometimes have dreams about people from the donors life.
This suggests that we think and store memories with more than just our brains.- that the whole body may do some thinking, memory storage.

By: Yair

Yair — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 07:34:48 +0000

Yes. That the personal-self is illusory only makes sense if there is something feeling the illusion, which requires something to FEEL. You can be wrong about what it is you are sensing, or who “you” are, but not about the fact that some feeling exists. That’s the Cogito Ergo Sum argument. And that’s all that is required for the arguments for panpsychism to work with.