Belief

[andrewducker]

There's a terrible article in the Guardian on belief here.  I was vaguely incensed by various bits of it, but particularly by

If we truly believed that life was meaningless, we would have no reason to get up in the morning - ultimately, the most rational thing to do would be to jump over the edge of a cliff.

I've seen this kind of thinking before.  And never an explanation of _why_ jumping over the edge of a cliff is more rational than going for a long bath, having sex, or saving children from starvation.

The answer is that none of these is inherently rational - all of them are choices, based around our emotions, and just because we don't have a 'reason' it doesn't suddenly make us stop caring about things.  It just means that our emotions are rooted in ourselves, not in some kind of universe-defining primal cause.

On the other hand, it can mean that if what really, truly drives you is TV, beer and Nachos, then that's fine too:

Comments

[robhu.livejournal.com]

I like your way of thinking.