“Belief” is an overloaded word. Some use it to mean a p=1 concept, while others use it to mean a p > 0.95 concept. Of course, p=1 ideas are crazy faith issues, but some people seem to sustain them. The “I have no beliefs” crowd just mean to say that they “have no p=1 beliefs that they hold with absolute faith”—which is a fair enough thing to observe.
I wish that were the case, but it seems to me that the “I have no beliefs” crowd that I am familiar with means that they have no beliefs for which P<1.
In other words, they either know something with absolute certainty, or they give it no credence whatsoever.
I can’t think of how many times I have told them that they need to both reclaim the word “Belief” and to understand that they have many things for which P≠1 (P<1, but greater than .5, or some other arbitrary number for which they will accept some information as being true).
Yet, sometimes the certainties of faith get assumed by those without faith (of the religious kind)
Don’t be too hard on them for that!
“Belief” is an overloaded word. Some use it to mean a p=1 concept, while others use it to mean a p > 0.95 concept. Of course, p=1 ideas are crazy faith issues, but some people seem to sustain them. The “I have no beliefs” crowd just mean to say that they “have no p=1 beliefs that they hold with absolute faith”—which is a fair enough thing to observe.
I wish that were the case, but it seems to me that the “I have no beliefs” crowd that I am familiar with means that they have no beliefs for which P<1.
In other words, they either know something with absolute certainty, or they give it no credence whatsoever.
I can’t think of how many times I have told them that they need to both reclaim the word “Belief” and to understand that they have many things for which P≠1 (P<1, but greater than .5, or some other arbitrary number for which they will accept some information as being true).
Yet, sometimes the certainties of faith get assumed by those without faith (of the religious kind)