Doubt!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Philosophy Forums Philosophy
1

You have a deep, religious faith inside of you.

Because you believe that the sun will rise, for you, tomorrow. Unless you are slated to die for some reason, you believe that you will wake up tomorrow and the Earth will revolve around the Sun. And even if you are scheduled to die, then does this change “objective reality”, that the Earth and Sun continue to revolve? At the very least, you believe in some objective reality, where even if you die tomorrow, then the “physical rules” will still exist. You religiously believe, this is your spiritual faith, that “life will go on” without you, or that the sun will rise and set tomorrow.

But have you questioned this core religious faith? No, you haven’t. You haven’t applied real doubt to this before. And because you haven’t applied real doubt to this before, you actually have not started doing philosophy. Because it is not until you can doubt such things, such facts, such realities, such absolutes, that you can engage what is philosophy. Philosophy is about doubt, not faith. Philosophy is the attempt to destroy all beliefs, no matter how real they seem. No matter how much you believe that “life will go on” without you, no matter how much you religiously believe in science, that the Earth will revolve around the Sun, and that the sun will rise on earth tomorrow, it doesn’t make a difference.

Because your subjective, emotional, irrational belief, your faith, has no bearing on “true reality”. Human beliefs are nothing. They can all be destroyed. And I can destroy them all. You can destroy them all. And this in fact, is your duty, your responsibility and obligation, as a proper philosopher. You must destroy all beliefs.

You must believe nothing at all. The Sun will not rise tomorrow. Life does not go on. The Sun does not revolve around the Earth. Nothing happens.

Erase all of your beliefs, all of them. Seriously, do it. Doubt everything. Because if you do not, then you will miss the point of philosophy. You will only go so far, so deep, which is actually to a shallow level compared to the deepest thinkers, and you will miss so much about life. You will fail to understand many reasons why. You will overlook causes. You will be blind to certain insights.

You could have seen, but, you chose not too. Instead, you chose to hang onto your God, hang onto your parents words, hang onto the words of your scientists, authorities, “expert opinions”. You deferred your responsibility to truth, throughout your life. You used other people’s words. You always had a dictionary handy, to define reality for you. YOU did not define reality, YOU did not take a stand, YOU avoided doubt. And you clung to your inner spiritual beliefs, as if they were some secret worthy of guarding. As if everybody else could not see them, whereas, most can and do.

As if your deepest beliefs were uncommon or rare? Because they’re not.

You need to start doubting.

2

Life

Life is your religion. You believe that you are alive. Why? Have you ever applied doubt to this religious belief of yours, that you are alive?

What makes you think you’re alive, what convinces you? Consciousness??? So if you are asleep, then you are dead? You see, it’s too easy for me.

Use your doubt. Doubt your own life. Doubt the lives of others. Do some philosophy. Doubt is your tool, use it to its maximum ability. Doubt all possibilities.

3

Doubt itself doesn’t make things better. Creativity following doubt, as well as comparative memory, creates new understandings, insights, knowledge, etc.

4

What would a perspective of 100% doubt, 0% faith look like?

5

I agree that It is necessary to doubt because that is the only way by which we can reach closer to the reality.

But, it would be irrational to destroy before doubt.
What if destroyed notion was right?

First doubt, then investigate, then judge whether any notion is worth destroying or not.

with love,
sanjay

6

Define doubt, religion and faith.

I’ll give you some dictionary definitions -

Doubt - To tend to disbelieve + To regard as unlikely + A lack of certainty

Examine - To observe carefully or critically; inspect + To test or check the condition or health of

We can examine information without doubting it, and get just as far as if we’d had doubt.

7

Yep.

One should not wait for doubt to rise before examining information, else one is waiting for the thief to be apparent before checking the locks on the windows. Continually verify even the most assured certainty. But don’t doubt it until your detailed examination reveals a reason to doubt it.

Are you to follow your reasoning, or merely your doubting?

8

Doubt seems to me to be final, a mind made up. One can question assumptions without doubting that they have merit.

9

To doubt is to falsify, to destroy truisms, unveil premises and axioms, and to expose lies.

Doubt is not a constructive force, but a destructive and deconstructive force. Doubt dismantles all thoughts, beliefs, religions. One of the highest crimes of the jewish christian moslem faith is to doubt God.

Doubt is inherently dangerous, evil, and a threat to organized religion. Doubt is a threat to 99% of humanity, because humanity relies on religion to do its thinking, believing, and morality for them. Doubt is rarest. Faith is common and average.

For example, how many people actually disbelieve that the sun will rise tomorrow, objectively?? Name 1 person who doubts this. Then explain how this person must rationalize being proved wrong everyday. Is it then a surprise that the sun rises tomorrow?

10

This is half truth only. You are seeing only one face of the doubt.
Doubt may expose lies, but you are forgetting that doubt leads investigation, which again may even support and confirm any notion too.

Doubt is not a notion itself, but merely a tool to verify the truth, or even lie.

As the sentence suggusts, that is oxymoron.

Your perception of the doubt entails destruction, which is wrong. Doubt is not and should not be used that way.
Doubt simply means that one is not sure either way.

Let me give an example.

One person is told since the childhood by his mother that her husband is his father too. Now, he doubt it. So, what should he do? Is he suppose to disown his father merely because he doubts that, given that even his mother is also confirming?

No. That would be wrong option.
He should go for the DNA match test of his father first, then behave accordingly.

That is how doubt should be used.

wih love,
sanjay

11

There is not “should” how doubt be used, nor faith.

I’m not talking about “should” doubt or faith be used. I’m merely demonstrating what doubt is, and at its highest power.

DOUBT ALL!!!

Your parents claim they love you. Doubt them. Doubt that they are your parents. Doubt that you are human. Doubt everything. Everything possible, doubt it all. Apply doubt to its maximum, and see what happens. Destroy everything with your doubt. Destroy all faith, all belief, all hope.

Once you do this, you see what remains. What can you not doubt? What can you not live without? What must you believe in, at the core of yourself?

For this, for the average person, take a christian for example, they cannot doubt their God. To them, they would rather die first, than doubt God.

So it proves my point exactly. There are some things that people cannot doubt. But for the philosopher, this is a different. The philosopher is obliged, must doubt, everything.

Rene Descartes is the best example of a philosopher who “doubted all”. He doubted that he was conscious. He imagined that all of life is a dream, and there is no difference between dream and reality. That is a proper philosopher, a proper example of the necessary doubt required, to partake in and do philosophy, effectively.

You MUST do this, as a philosopher. You don’t have a choice. And once you wield the destructive weapon of doubt, you will see what you yourself cannot doubt.

12

People literally doubt themselves to death.
That is why it has been promoted so much recently.

And as a philosopher, I don’t doubt. I examine and verify.

Have faith in nothing and you become nothing.

13

I once posted this…

Followed by this:

Take from that what you will…

14

I will gladly take the whole text.

The superficial, intellectually shallow, emotionally exuberant types who dominate online philosophy fora, currently, do so due to the nature of our society and era. We live in a time of populist democracy, where what produces the “best feelings for all”, is most objectively true. This is the state and status of philosophy today, throughout western civilization. However, around the world, different atmosphere, environment, thoughts are occurring.

Philosophers should use doubt, as it is meant to, and scoop out a massive tunnel to the center of earth with it. Get to the core of existence, using doubt.

Dig under everything. Lift the world up from the bottom.

It’s not like humans have anything better to do during these End Times.

15

Human thought experience is all about sensations and feelings. The logic stuff comes later and is usually submissive towards the wills and passions.

16

Yes we can sit around the dinner table and eat with our hands and make a mess as we did when we were children and even argue that doing so comes natural…
But you cannot argue that there is no other way… nor should it surprise you when you are inevitably asked to vacate the restaurant, suggesting perhaps you try another establishment less demanding of you.

After all… not everyone makes a good philosopher.

17

I think you are suggesting that if we be more logical it is a virtue. If that is all you are saying, I’d agree. But, values usually come from our desires, not from complex higher constructs of thought.

18

Must passion always precede reason?

19

I am suggesting that philosophy is the love of wisdom…

I am suggesting that it is not just a venue for people to express their feelings and air their opinions. It is expected that you attempt to examine your opinions, understand your reasons, even correct your mistakes, so that when you present your thoughts they be comprehensible (if not compelling) to others and yourself.

And I’m also suggesting that if you’re not interested in any of that, and just want to talk about whatever random “sensation or feeling” pops into your head, then maybe philosophy isn’t for you… perhaps you’d be more at home writing a blog or posting on twitter…

20

Logic tends to be a passive quality in the mind.

If someone has a passion for logic, THEN logic means something, and is important.