How secure are you in your beliefs?

When looking for information about your beliefs, do you confine your search to sources that already agree with you? YES __ NO __

Do you ignore claims and evidence if made or presented by someone who disagrees with you? YES __ NO __

Do you encourage others to ignore anyone who disagrees with you? YES __ NO __

Do you refuse to consider the possibility that your belief is wrong? YES __ NO __

Do you insist that your belief is a necessary precondition for logic? YES __ NO __

Do you claim that anyone who opposes your beliefs must secretly believe them without knowing anything else about such a person? YES __ NO __


























Scoring:

5-6 YES: You are completely insecure in your beliefs. They are nothing but a pretense. You shield them desperately because you afraid reality will shatter them.

4 YES: You are somewhat insecure in your beliefs. You fear the possibility of being wrong.

3 YES: You are not really secure or insecure in your beliefs.

2 YES: You are somewhat secure in your beliefs. You are confident that they will withstand scrutiny, but may have difficulty if they should prove to be false.

0-1 YES: You are totally secure in your beliefs. You believe them on the best evidence currently available to you. You are confident they will withstand scrutiny. You are also willing to change your beliefs if new evidence shows they are wrong.

Locally, I have seen a lot of people complaining about photo radar.

     One of the biggest complaints is that it is being used as a revenue source. Well, I'm all for eliminating its effectiveness as a revenue source. Get rid of the lead feet, people. No one is saying (as far as I am aware) that the speed limits are artificially low. People aren't saying that it is nabbing people who aren't speeding. The trouble is that they want to speed but don't want to pay the fine.

Ordinarily, I make the assumption that people actually believe what they are saying.

     There are some obvious exceptions to this. If a salesman thinks his product is inferior, he will deny it if asked. He may claim it superior unsolicited. I have reached a point where I think that dishonesty may be a requirement of christianity. I could be wrong; and I would love to have that demonstrated. But consider: Christians claim they are not interested in the praises of men. Yet, they often praise one another. Would they bother with such praise, if they really thought the recipients uninterested? The mere act of praise indicates that they think the claim of disinterest in such praise is a lie. But they praise on the basis of that lie. So, they are openly endorsing deception.

With apologies to Mr. Seegar

     And there's christians. And there's atheists. And mor(m)ons and muslims, too. And they're all made out of ticky-tacky. And they all look just the same.
     Okay, not all. Still, a lot of the people I run into on the internet are very dogmatic about whichever viewpoint they hold. If there were a "universal church," I'm sure it would the church of "I am right and you are wrong."

A hypothetical situation:

     Suppose someone had created a device that allowed him to control the actions of someone else. Suppose further that he used device to make someone else rob a bank. Finally, suppose the person who used that controller was the judge in the criminal case and sentenced his victim to life in a dungeon. Would that person be perfectly good? Is the person controlled against his will actually responsible for anything?

And now for an ad spoof...

Are you concerned about getting a ticket when you go out for a drive? Are the speed limits in your area far too low? Hey, we know that you can drive safely at high speeds and we are here to help eliminate your worries. Our new radar-proof paint will make speeding tickets a thing of the past. Our patented RADOFF™ technology causes the paint to absorb the radar signals that hit it while acting like ordnary paint (available in seven colors) for visible light. The radar will not see your car. Also check out our radar-proof window treatments and license plate covers. Clear to the visible eye, the absorb and eliminate radar signals. The trouble with obscuring covers is that the police can see what you are doing. You may get special attention. Not with our radar-proof covers. No one can tell that you've got it. It just makes radar ineffective. Buy it today; and make your car radar-proof.

A prediction

     I am making a prediction for what will in 2009 when Daniel's "prophecy" about the supernatural destruction of San Francisco fails to come to pass. I will put my prediction in the comments section to avoid claims of editing after the fact.