RE: virus: agnosticism again (was Site du jour (Temple of the V

David McFadzean (david@lucifer.com)
Wed, 07 Jan 1998 16:45:08 -0700


At 01:29 PM 1/7/98 -0500, Lena Rotenberg wrote:

>To host no memes whatsoever is to be unable to reach any conclusion, hold
>no beliefs, non-beliefs, or disbeliefs. We would literally be unable to
>get out of bed in the morning if that were the case, for doing that
>requires belief in <I exist>, <bed exists>, etc.

I think we may be talking about two kinds of beliefs here:
prescriptive and descriptive. The former are the kind that cause
behavior, the latter kind explains behavior. We can't help but
have descriptive beliefs; if one doesn't go to church then one
is acting as if one doesn't believe in God, whether agnostic
or atheist, there is no effective difference at that level.

>According to Goedel's theorem, there is no rational way to rationally prove
>that these axioms are true, for we'd always hit a self-refential statement.
> My very belief in <Goedel's theorem> is based on other memes. We who
>think critically hold these so-called axiomatic memes to be "working
>hypotheses," to use Robin's expression.

Godel's theorem actually only applies to formal systems.

--
David McFadzean                 david@lucifer.com
Memetic Engineer                http://www.lucifer.com/~david/
Church of Virus                 http://www.lucifer.com/virus/