I wasn’t aware of this quote at the time, but similar views were influential in my deconversion from Christianity. I decided that if I believed in God, that meant I should not be afraid to subject that belief to fair tests of evidence and argumentation. Surely God’s might and glory would persuade even the most skeptical of men, so what danger was skepticism really? In hindsight, I’m very grateful that this was my view, it meant that unlike so many others I was lucky enough to avoid getting stuck in a stagnated belief system. That alternative is terrifying to me: therefore I now try to randomly change my priors on occasion until they repair themselves, in order to help minimize my odds of getting trapped in local maxima.
Nietzsche in Dawn: Reflections on Moral Prejudice. http://www.lexido.com/EBOOK_TEXTS/DAYBREAK_.aspx?S=156
I wasn’t aware of this quote at the time, but similar views were influential in my deconversion from Christianity. I decided that if I believed in God, that meant I should not be afraid to subject that belief to fair tests of evidence and argumentation. Surely God’s might and glory would persuade even the most skeptical of men, so what danger was skepticism really? In hindsight, I’m very grateful that this was my view, it meant that unlike so many others I was lucky enough to avoid getting stuck in a stagnated belief system. That alternative is terrifying to me: therefore I now try to randomly change my priors on occasion until they repair themselves, in order to help minimize my odds of getting trapped in local maxima.