(February 8, 2025 at 4:44 am)Sheldon Wrote: [...] I also don't believe deities are possible, and for the same reason.
NB Those are not beliefs.
This depends on how you define "belief."
https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/belief/
Traditionally, "knowledge" is defined as "justified true belief." Here, "belief" is anything a person holds to be true. Knowledge is a subset of belief -- something one holds to be true which is also justified and also true.
So everyone has beliefs, because we all hold some things to be true. And no one goes through an entire life in which everything he holds to be true really is true, so it's better to keep in mind that what we hold to be true is belief.
In conversation, of course, people often use the word differently. "Belief" is used to mean something like "a thing other people hold to be true according to standards I reject" and "knowledge" is used to mean "a thing I hold to be true according to the standards I prefer."
But of course materialist metaphysics, which you appear to believe, can't be proven through materialist methods. And empiricist epistemology can't be proven through empirical methods. So it's best to acknowledge them as beliefs.
I'm not saying they're BAD beliefs, only that they are things some people hold to be true.


