What I believe, by George Jelliss
I've challenged visitors to this site to submit their personal credo in 272 words or less -- since that's how many words Abraham Lincoln took to deliver his , one of the greatest speeches ever given. Today I post our bloggers' attempts to express their values and beliefs within that word-limit. If you are interested, provoked, challenged, impressed or infuriated by what they have written, add a comment and say why. Exactly one week from now, the credo attracting the most comments wins a book prize of my choice. Needless to say, the views expressed by the entrants to our Spirit of Lincoln competition are their views, not mine or the ´óÏó´«Ã½'s. The following is George Jelliss's credo.
How do we know what is true and what to believe? We have to rely on reason to evaluate the evidence. All humans have the ability to reason, we need it just to survive from day to day, it is largely common sense. Reason however is not divorced from feeling.
Belief is knowledge that is imbued with feeling to some degree. In deciding whether to believe something we weigh our feelings for and against and arrive at a balance. When the feeling is strong enough we can talk about believing in something, it becomes a motivational commitment. But belief must be rational, based on evidence, in contrast to faith, which is emotional belief without sufficient reason, irrational belief, wish fulfilment.
Some of our knowledge comes direct, through our own sense experiences and thinking, but much is indirect. We have to trust authorities to some extent, but not to closely. Experts can be wrong. They may not keep up to date. They may become corrupted by paymasters or by religious or political commitments. Ultimately, we have to think for ourselves. If the ideas hold together in a logical manner without contradictions then we can say they make sense. The basis of our collective knowledge is the cyclic process of scientific method.
We start by gathering evidence, by observation or experiment, then we weave these facts into a theory which can be used to make predictions which we then test by observation and experiment again. The way to a fulfilled life is to develop your talents, to be creative rather than destructive, to make use of the one life you have here and now.
Comments
George - nice exposition of the scientific method - but no conclusions yet?
Gods or not? Especially as this is a religious and ethics site.
Perhaps you are very young and need time?
alot of integrity there George...
PB
George:
I'm waiting for an answer to Alan. How do you think you are going to win this thing if you don't talk?
If you and I just keep exchanging "I believe you" messages we can keep the count ahead of all the rest.
Want to give it a try? I promise I'll give you a reasoned response to your postings until of course Mark appears (as he will - he keeps looking for me and my cat) and then I will have to box his ears again. (But he loves it that's why he keeps coming back for more)
Now you have at least 3 posts.
Waiting.
Maureen
BTW - Don't mention anything about cockroaches. Mark has become obsessed with them.
It seems we are allowed to comment on our own entries. I trust they won't be counted a votes for ourselves!
For Alan's information I'm 66. Still quite young!
I thought I'd disposed of all religious belief like gods by saying: "But belief must be rational, based on evidence, in contrast to faith, which is emotional belief without sufficient reason, irrational belief, wish fulfilment."
How come not all of the "I believe" posts appears in the righthand column? I take it that only those commented on recently appear?
Maureen McNeill wrote, in the Michael N. Hull threaad:
"Re: George Jelliss
A bit bland for me. George, who you are did not come through in this statement. But it was straightforward and concise. Came over, however, like something you would have written in a text book."
Quite correct. I only came across the "Will and Testament" blog on 31st December, to look at the Andy McIntosh articles.
Most of my "I believe" essay was hastily put together from bits I've written before for the Leicester Secular Society website.
Re 5:
Well at least you gave it a shot and for that I complement you.
I see you have commented on other credos so I will learn a little bit more about you as you get responses to those posts.
I have to agree with you that the competition is not being fairly conducted. All of the credos should be equally available on this website for comment. I had to hunt around to find yours. It's true that only the ones containing recent comments seem to stay visible.
Is Will listening?
Peace,
Maureen
George
You say my posting was forceful and irrational so just wanted you to now I wasnt ignoring you.
I honestly cant see how it is forceful, it is the evidence of Christ that I see around me.
My sister in law's doctor no longer prescribes her for asthman, my sister's consultant has before and after scans showing her tumour disappeared.
He inspected the tumour during open brain surgery might I add.
Anyway, thanks for taking the trouble to write
sincerely
PB
George, if you take my advice, you'll get in your submarine and dive, dive, dive as quickly as you can. I barely got away just in the nick of time. Time, tide, and new blog entries wait for no man.
Hi George
Thanks for coming back.
What would I attribute the illnesess to?
I just dont know. I think my sister in law (and brother) was pretty convinced that a spiritual bondage was broken when she was prayed over and healed of asthma.
As for the rest I dont know. Could be conventional illness or spiritual or both.
I wont try and convince you about anything, it is just how I see the world.
But I do wonder if you apply the scientific method to all areas of your life? For example, relationships.
For me God is about a relationship, and I dont see that science is really the right tool to measure it. But if y you are really interested in evidence, I know many people have tried to disprove the resurrection and been converted to Christ. Lord Chief Justice Darling said an intelligent jury could not but be convinced for example. Ben Hurr, a tale of the Christ was also written by a sceptic who was converted, fyi only.
I dont want to force anything onto you, I know you see things very differently. If you want to trip me up, its not hard. But if you want to hear about my experiences I'll sure talk all day.
sincerely
PB