Finding my way in the demon haunted world

Well it has been a while since I had a 'philosophical' post, so here we are. Some of you who read my blog from time to time (I don't really think there are that many), might be a tad confused with some of my apparent contradictions. Well, here is the deal - so am I. You see I'm really still deciding on my views across a number of issues. However, I have had an epihany of late, one that I kind of already knew in my heart but hadn't really formalised. It's rather obvious to me now and I hope that most of the rest of the world comes to this realisation at some stage as well. You see I have stumbled upon reason once again, I lost it for a while but now I have found it again.

Reason is the language of science, the language of evidence and the only 'reason' we have a modern advanced society that is not static but always improving and learning new things about itself and the world we live in. Reason advances mankind as surely as the sun rises in the morning - but hey this is all heresay and speak easy from me. Don't believe what I say, find out for yourself.

One of the best things about reason is that if you have an idea about something, the way something works, why something behaves a certain way etc etc, you can always say what will prove you wrong and what will change your mind. You see, reason is simply the best way we have of deciding what is truth or fact and what is myth or bullshit. If you have an idea about something, you simply way up the evidence and let the facts speak for themselves. This is why for example I am an Atheist. There is no evidence for a personal 'God' in the sky. But I can tell you exactly what would change my mind. If God were to come down from 'heaven' tomorrow and announce his presence to world, I would become a believer, assuming of course that it could be proven that it was God and not some elaborate hoax, but you get my drift.

People who 'believe' in reason never speak in absolutes like fundamentalists, there is always some doubt but often you can say how much doubt. New evidence comes along all the time and one must constantly evaluate their beliefs to see if they are still true. Some people may find this slightly disconcerting that we can never be absolutely sure about anything - but many things that hold true often present such overwhelming evidence that they may as well be absolutely true. Some examples for such things are evolution, the earth is approximatley spherical, the earth orbits the sun, the sun is powered by nuclear fusion, antibiotics kill bacteria (and not viruses as somehow many people still believe) and the chemical formula for water is H20. Of course I could go on and on. I find the whole concept of reason and truth seeking so invigorating you might even call it a 'spirtual' experience. I love it when some belief that I cherish gets proven wrong - usually becuase the real answer is more enlightning, perhaps filling a previous gap in knowledge.

So I profess to have turned a new leaf on this blog and in my personal opinions from now on. I will try not to have an opinion on something unless I have looked at the evidence and the facts and become somewhat knowledable on the subject. "Trust the experts" is damn good advice in my opinion.

I have never formed for myself a satisfactory political philosophy, mostly because people on both sides of the traditional political spectrum routinely expouse bullshit and anti-truths in the name of vote grabbing for an easily misled public. However, recently I have stumbled upon libertaranism as a political philosophy and to me it seems to fit with my new found trust in reason. To a layman, essentially a libertarian philosophy combines the best parts of traditional right and left wing politics. Some people say that libertarians are left wing morally and right wing economically. This doesn't really tell you much does it. Well okay so this includes protection of the free market, which means reducing as much as possible both corporate and social welfare, reducing taxes, protection of individual property rights etc. Some of the 'moral' ideas libertarians support include - euthanasia (assisted suicide), abortion, gay rights, women's rights, drug legilisation (all drugs, not just marijuana), freedom of speech and libertarians generally anti-war (except in self defence). The idea is that 'less government is more' and that people make better decisions for themselves than the government. I am trying this political philosophy on and so far I like it, I will let you know if I change my mind...