5/29/2009 PERMALINK
Isaac Asimov on building a better belief system
From Isaac Asimov's The Roving Mind (1997), page 43:

"Don't you believe in flying saucers, they ask me? Don't you believe in telepathy? - in ancient astronauts? - in the Bermuda triangle? - in life after death?"

No, I reply. No, no, no, and again no.

One person recently, goaded into desperation by the litany of unrelieved negation, burst out 'Don't you believe in anything?'

'Yes,' I said. 'I believe in evidence. I believe in observation, measurement, and reasoning, confirmed by independent observers. I'll believe anything, no matter how wild and ridiculous, if there is evidence for it. The wilder and more ridiculous something is, however, the firmer and more solid the evidence will have to be."

The first step towards creating a better civilization 2.0, which can let us escape the ignorance, war, persecution, deprivation, disease and suffering of our current civilization, is to adopt a better belief system.