I decided to attempt the same for myself and have included those people, whom I believe influenced me, which is not to say they agree with me. In the case of some of my psychological points I haven’t cited anyone as I’ve forgotten where my beliefs came from (in those cases).
- There are 3 worlds: physical, mental and mathematical. (Penrose)
- Consciousness exists in a constant present; classical physics describes the past and quantum mechanics describes the future. (Schrodinger, Bragg, Dyson)
- Reality requires both consciousness and a physical universe. You can have a universe without consciousness, which was the case in the past, but it has no meaning and no purpose. (Barrow, Davies)
- Purpose has evolved but the Universe is not teleological in that it is not determinable. (Davies)
- There is a cosmic anthropic principle; without sentient beings there might as well be nothing. (Carter, Barrow, Davies)
- Mathematics exists independently from humans and the Universe. (Barrow, Penrose, Pythagoras, Plato)
- There will always be mathematical truths we don’t know. (Godel, Turing, Chaitin)
- Mathematics is not a language per se. It starts with the prime numbers, called the 'atoms of mathematics', yet extends to infinity and the transcendental. (Euclid, Euler, Riemann)
- The Universe created the means to understand itself, with mathematics the medium and humans the only known agents. (Einstein, Wigner)
- The Universe obeys laws dependent on fine-tuned mathematical parameters. (Hoyle, Barrow, Davies)
- The Universe is not a computer; chaos rules and is not predictable. (Stewart, Gleik)
- The brain does not run on algorithms; there is no software. (Penrose, Searle)
- Human language is analogous to software because we ‘download’ it from generation to generation and it ‘mutates’; if I can mix my metaphors. (Dawkins, Hofstadter)
- We think and conceptualise in a language. Axiomatically, this limits what we can conceive and think about. (Wittgenstein)
- We only learn something new when we integrate it into what we already know. (Wittgenstein)
- Humans have the unique ability to nest concepts within concepts ad-infinitum, which mirror the physical world. (Hofstadter)
- Morality is largely subjective, dependent on cultural norms but malleable by milieu, conditioning and cognitive dissonance. (Mill, Zimbardo)
- It is inherently human to form groups with an ingroup-outgroup mentality.
- Evil requires the denial of humanity in others.
- Empathy is the key to social reciprocity at all levels of society. (Confucius, Jesus)
- Quality of life is dependent on our interaction with others from birth to death. (Aristotle, Buddha)
- Wisdom comes from adversity. The premise of every story ever told is about a protagonist dealing with adversity – it’s a universal theme (Frankl, I Ching).
- God is an experience that is internal, yet is perceived as external. (Feuerbach)
- Religion is the mind’s quest to find meaning for its own existence.
Addendum: I’ve changed it from 23 points to 24 by adding point 22. It’s actually a belief I’ve held for some time. They are all ‘beliefs’ except point 7, which arises from a theorem.
