The Virtue of Doubt

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Doubt is a virtue, faith is a vice. The only way to truly know anything is to remove doubt by seeking knowledge; by contrast, faith is no different than making things up, and that's a luxury that one can rarely, if ever, afford.

Music by Kevin MacLeod: http://incompetech.com/m/c/royalty-free/index.html
Used with permission

Category:

Education

Tags:

• bionicdance
• bionic
• dance
• faith
• religion
• god
• belief
• skeptic
• skepticism
• evidence
• proof
• atheism
• atheist
• theism
• theist

[phlewis86]

I have so many problems with this video I don't know where to begin. It is a misrepresentation of the concept of faith. It also jumps gaps of reason. If this is what passes for a good argument then we are truly living in said times of intellectual bankruptcy. I guess it is getting a lot of positive marks because people are tuning in to hear someone bash religion. I guess when you have people who are not interested in good intellectual discourse you can get away with stuff like this.

[BionicDance]

@phlewis86 Do you have anything SPECIFIC to say, or are you just doing the equivalent of folding your arms and going, "Nuh-UH!"...?

[xxxJimiGxxx]

In parkour, there are times when if you think, or doubt, or question, then you die. The experience of parkour is not an intellectual one. Perhaps later, in reflection, it becomes intellectual. But in the moment there is not time to reflect or ponder or argue one way or another - there is only time to move. It is then that you experience being 'in the moment' - truly, fully - and this cannot be captured by words because it is a feeling. You know it by direct experience; it cannot be argued away.

[BionicDance]

@xxxJimiGxxx You don't KNOW it...you FEEL it.

Don't confuse knowledge with an emotional or instinctive response; even if you ultimately end up having been correct, that doesn't mean your methodology or behavior was based on an accurate picture of the universe around you.

[xxxJimiGxxx]

@BionicDance

I guess that will always be the limitation of intellectual debate. It can only go so far.

[BionicDance]

@xxxJimiGxxx Not at all; with sufficient evidence, intellectual processes can determine the truth of anything. To assume that there is something beyond the intellectual is to lie to oneself.

[BionicDance]

@MichaelGabrielR I'm sorry, but I told you to present EVIDENCE, not a smörgåsbord of fifty-cent words that proves nothing. I asked you to SHOW that your side had a point BACKED BY EVIDENCE, and all you gave me was pseudo-intellectual CRAP that boils down to nothing more than, "It's just GOTTA be what I say it's gotta be!"

Good-bye.

[awolikesguitars]

It is hard to argue about a word like faith when it means somehing different to all of us. To me, you can't have faith in something unless you know it, and in order to know it I have to feel it's right. With out that core feeling or sense of sure enlightenment, everybit of confidence can be erased.

[Nitelurker1]

@xxxJimiGxxx Sadly I agree with you, at least regarding matters dealing with faith. Often religion demands that one remain faithful despite all evidence and reason. Some people fear that reason will diminish their faith. They have been indoctrinated into a belief system that sets them opposed to reason and evidence, at least to some degree. It is not likely that reason alone can make much of a difference to these folks, I fear.

[Nitelurker1]

@phlewis86 Bickering? I don't even have a clue why you made any of the assertions you made. A reasonable specific argument backing them would have been helpful. We haven't even got any where near the bickering stage. If you have real concerns and a genuine desire to discuss them, then don't start by making empty claims without any explanation given at all. All you had to offer was simply ridicule wrapped in a pretty package. A polite troll, lacking any substance.

[phlewis86]

@Nitelurker1 This is becoming mere bickering and nothing more. I apologize if said anything offensive. I do have real concerns but I don't think they can be resolved is way. Perhaps I should have stated things differently.

[Nitelurker1]

@MichaelGabrielR

I think biblically speaking faith must be a little more than that given that if you even have a tiny amount you can order mountains to move at will.

[Nitelurker1]

@phlewis86

"....people who are being hypocrites." How so? "You all criticize faith and talk about "not running on automatic" yet it is crystal clear this is exactly what you all are doing." Again, how so? "I guess when you don't have new ideas you just have to keep repackaging the old ones and hope no one notices." Then enlighten us to exactly what you are talking about. Because so far all I see is ridicule with no substance at all. You might as well just call us all a-holes. Stupid.

[phlewis86]

@Nitelurker1 I meant what I said the first time. This is not even worth my time to argue with people who are being hypocrites. You all criticize faith and talk about "not running on automatic" yet it is crystal clear this is exactly what you all are doing. There is nothing being said here that I have not heard before. I guess when you don't have new ideas you just have to keep repackaging the old ones and hope no one notices.

[Nitelurker1]

@phlewis86

"misrepresentation of the concept of faith" How so? "jumps gaps of reason" Such as? You offer absolutely no real argument here. I find it more than a little ironic that you talk about good intellectual discourse but offer absolutely nothing but ridicule. As I see it, that is a sure sign of intellectual bankruptcy.

[312haku]

@BionicDance i know im late,but uh this mindset comes from fear it is the skeptics who rob them of their false virtue faith.like you and so many teachers have done for me.iam an atheist,but at one time i was an avid christian i didnt want to listen at first for i feared that my faith would be overcome by my critical faculties and the comfort it brought destroyed.