A conceptual perspective on belief

[Gregorian]

1. I've been reviewing my old physics courses this week. Somehow this is related.

There are things that aren't intuitive. And that is where our perception and gut feeling fall flat on their face. I do see heated physics arguments. I saw one on a biking forum recently. And funnily enough I saw false information. So there they were, arguing with facts that were wrong. But what strikes me odd is that typically when it comes to things like physics, the arguments are not heated, and they tend to be resolved through experiments or mathematics. But when it comes to religion, much more often there is this charged emotional aspect. I'm embarrassed to reveal my true feelings on Christianity. I have tried to be agnostic, and I logically believe that it's foolish to cling to any belief. But the more I look into the makings of the universe, the more trouble I have in denying something magical is going on.

Somehow this ties in with an experiment I saw. If you take two solid cylinders of any diameter, and any mass, and roll them down an incline, they'll both reach the bottom at the same time. If you take a tube and roll it, it will be slower than any solid cylinder of any size or mass. It's independent of mass or size. It's only dependent on the moment of inertia. If we couldn't show this by experiment, then I suppose people would get in heated arguments. I'd swear the lighter cylinders would reach the bottom first. In fact, maybe religion is charged because we have little more than belief to go on.

I know this isn't really addressing your post. It's about perception, and clinging to belief in the absence of proof. Well, once again I don't have much of a clue. It's an interesting subject. One that no one may answer. After all, if we are created, and wired by a god, then I would suspect we have that god's fingerprints in us. And that would make it hard to abandon being emotional about this subject.