Believing in nothing.

A classical song:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSbKNkPlrxk&ab_channel=fallenleaf25

Yeah I think it's probably impossible for a person (or at least a sane functioning person) to have no beliefs whatsoever.

Belief in nothing would be a belief! All hail the paradox!

Reply to universeness I know. You gotta love Logic!

Reply to flannel jesus Define to me "sane person".

Reply to A Realist use your intuition. I'm not using some precise unintuitive definition of sane. If you yourself are sane, your intuition of what a sane person acts like is good enough

Reply to flannel jesus That's it, I don't know what is a "sane person".

Reply to A Realist rather than trying to define sanity, it would be far easier for me to justify what I said by instead describing the behaviours of a person who doesn't believe anything.

A person who doesn't believe anything doesn't willingly eat, because they have no belief that eating will sustain their life, end their hunger, or bring pleasure.

A person who doesn't believe anything doesn't communicate in a shared language with other people, because they have no belief that their words will be effective or even understood.

I could go on, but I think you could get the picture from that. If you're sane.

Reply to flannel jesus As Einstein once said "everything is relative". I believe in everything and in nothing. There was once a poster called grady from physicsforums who in his signature wrote:"why should I believe if I can just disbelieve".
I don't know to what to believe anymore, so many faiths, and that's my truth. :-(
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHHvEksC7oc&ab_channel=NuclearBlastRecords

But Einstein also said "God doesn't play dice", i.e he disbelieved Quantum Physics is the correct picture of reality. Are there any mainstream physicists nowadays who disbelieve Quantum Physics, I don't think there is such, but no one understands it (as the saying goes). Who was it quoted that he likes the "shut up, and calculate" interpretation?
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Shut_up_and_calculate
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IgY-dpDKiJI&t=734s&ab_channel=JediMasterGeoff

Sometimes, I do believe that I am God though.
As Aristotle said:
https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/aristotle_399587

Yeah Long live the Misanthrope!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFug3xQBKAk&ab_channel=NuclearBlastRecords

Reply to A Realist I'm really not sure what you're trying to say with all that. I can't even tell which bits of your comment are quotes and which bits are you saying something you think. None of it seems like a response to my previous comment.

Quoting flannel jesus

A person who doesn't believe anything doesn't willingly eat, because they have no belief that eating will sustain their life, end their hunger, or bring pleasure.

A person who doesn't believe anything doesn't communicate in a shared language with other people, because they have no belief that their words will be effective or even understood.

A person who doesn't believe anything would not believe in eating, life, hunger, pleasure, other people, themself, words, effects, or understanding. I assume such a person could only exist because of mental illness. It reminds me of Cotard's syndrome.

Reply to A Realist the act of believing is something. So one can rephrase your sentence as can I really "something about nothing".

Its like saying "I believe in the lack of beliefs (nothing)".
A contradiction.

True nothingness is inconceivable. As all you have at your disposal to attempt it is "somethings" - ideas, thoughts, concepts, observations etc. And lest we forget you, the thinker, are also something. Nothingness is not achievable by the existing.

Reply to Benj96
I agree. Which is why I think mental illness is the only way.

Quoting A Realist

Can I really believe in nothing?

No, you cannot. "Nothing" means nothing; zero; zilch; empty set; absence of anything. There is nothing about nothing to latch onto.

It sounds cool to say, "Oh, I don't believe in any of that crap. I BELIEVE IN NOTHING!" It's OK for an adolescent tantrum, but otherwise it's a meaningless statement. The good news is that one can articulate all of the crap one doesn't believe in, and that will piss off everyone more than throwing a tantrum.

Quoting BC

The good news is that one can articulate all of the crap one doesn't believe in, and that will piss off everyone more than throwing a tantrum.

:up: :lol: