3 ms·

"Do you believe in X" is almost always the wrong question.

by slver 5y ago

goatlover 5y ago
But that also ignores that most humans do have opinions/beliefs on a wide variety of topics, including whether UFOs are of alien origin. It's legitimate to ask whether in someone's opinion the evidence is such that they think XYZ. Do aliens civilizations exist somewhere out there? A majority of scientists think they probably do. Of course that doesn't mean they have visited or even know about us, but it also means one can form beliefs about things which aren't known for sure, unlike the sun. The point isn't about UFOs specifically, as I don't believe they constitute evidence for ETs, but rather that facts and data don't exist independent of the various webs of human beliefs, including what that shining thing in the sky is we call the Sun.
- slver 5y ago
  Beliefs are often a bit too crude relative to the modern rational mindset we should encourage in ourselves and others. A scientist may, in casual conversation speak about whether they "believe" in aliens or not, but if you ask them to be precise, they'll correct themselves and talk about probabilities and possibilities, not beliefs. The thing that bothers me about the "do you believe" question is that it seems to exclude this moment of hesitancy and letting things sit in "superposition" of possible outcomes. I.e. if you ask someone "do you believe in God" and they answer "maybe I do", you might consider their response sarcastic. Another problem with "do you believe" is that it often targets very broad and very fuzzy concepts, that everyone understands however they wish, but we insist on calling by a common name. It's very crude, and doesn't help further the debate.
Koshkin 5y ago
And "I believe" is almost always a bad answer. (Belief only makes sense when it can be provably quantified, like, for example, what they do in statistics.)

3 ms·

"Do you believe in X" is almost always the wrong question.

by slver 5y ago

"Do you believe in X" is almost always the wrong question.

goatlover 5y ago
But that also ignores that most humans do have opinions/beliefs on a wide variety of topics, including whether UFOs are of alien origin. It's legitimate to ask whether in someone's opinion the evidence is such that they think XYZ. Do aliens civilizations exist somewhere out there? A majority of scientists think they probably do. Of course that doesn't mean they have visited or even know about us, but it also means one can form beliefs about things which aren't known for sure, unlike the sun. The point isn't about UFOs specifically, as I don't believe they constitute evidence for ETs, but rather that facts and data don't exist independent of the various webs of human beliefs, including what that shining thing in the sky is we call the Sun.
- slver 5y ago
  Beliefs are often a bit too crude relative to the modern rational mindset we should encourage in ourselves and others. A scientist may, in casual conversation speak about whether they "believe" in aliens or not, but if you ask them to be precise, they'll correct themselves and talk about probabilities and possibilities, not beliefs. The thing that bothers me about the "do you believe" question is that it seems to exclude this moment of hesitancy and letting things sit in "superposition" of possible outcomes. I.e. if you ask someone "do you believe in God" and they answer "maybe I do", you might consider their response sarcastic. Another problem with "do you believe" is that it often targets very broad and very fuzzy concepts, that everyone understands however they wish, but we insist on calling by a common name. It's very crude, and doesn't help further the debate.
Koshkin 5y ago
And "I believe" is almost always a bad answer. (Belief only makes sense when it can be provably quantified, like, for example, what they do in statistics.)