My philosophy

So second post on this blog. Exciting. In this post I am going to talk about exactly what I believe in. Boring? Could be. I have talked a lot to people I know about what I believe (read this as: lectured them until they moved away) and I have to admit I love talking about what I think. Hell I have a blog now, that much should be obvious. Whether you will enjoy reading about my beliefs, I don't know but you don't have to read it so do what you want.

ANYWAY. When it comes to pinning down beliefs it can get a bit tricky. Humans like labelling things and don't really like grey areas (future blog subject perhaps) and beliefs aren't exactly concrete and not all of them really have definite names. This can complicate things. To make this post simple (and short) I'm just going to use the general labels that are usually attributed to what I believe.

I am a nihilist. No not an anarchist a nihilist. No not a Satanist (don't be silly) a nihilist. Nihilism is defined (by Wikipedia anyway) as 

"the philosophical doctrine suggesting the negation of one or more putativelymeaningful aspects of life."

Yeah I don't understand that either. I think should try and be a bit clearer. There are lots of different types of nihilism and I don't believe in all of them but some I believe are correct. One of these is Existential Nihilism. What this means is that I don't believe that life has any meaning. Now before you start thinking "Wow he must be so depressed! No meaning to life?" hear me out. I am far from depressed by thinking this. Most mainstream religions and doctrines say that the point of life is to worship God or do good so that you are rewarded in Heaven or something along those lines. Whatever the individual goal there is always a goal. I disagree. There is no goal. There is no finish line or top of the pyramid or "true path". This idea can scare people and I completely understand that. Suddenly you find that you are surrounded by chaos. If everything is meaningless then I am meaningless too. Wrong. Humanity creates it's own meaning. There are no rules written into the fabric of the universe that dictate that you must do this or that so you have to form your own rules, your own values and you set your own end goals. I don't feel depressed by the idea of there being no intrinsic meaning in the world I feel liberated. I can do and strive for what I want and not feel guilty because I broke some cosmic law that I had no choice in deciding. I am truly free to decide my fate and if I don't reach my end goal who cares? It's personal and I can do what I want. Now at this point you may well say "But hey wait a minute! What about laws and morals and good and bad? You can't do some things because they are just wrong!" Well...

My second core belief is Moral (or Ethical) Nihilism. I don't believe that good or bad exist. Moral laws are as baseless as the laws that tell you that the point of life is to worship an omnipotent deity. Picture the scene: It's 80 AD and you are in Rome. Emperor Titus has just finished building (well when I say he I mean his hundreds of slaves) the Colosseum! 100 days of festivities play out. There are gladiatorial matches (3,000 gladiators competing in a single day), wild animal fights, the arena is flooded and full naval battles occur. Wooden balls are thrown into the crowd and on each ball is inscribed a prize which could be anything from gold to slaves. Imagine that! Your very own free slaves!

Imagine if someone tried to organise something similar today. Fights, blood, slaves. There would be outrage. People would be horrified. They would think that that person was mad or dangerous and should be locked away. So why was it OK in the time of Titus but so very wrong now? Well values and morals have changed. So what's to say they won't change again? You are sure that killing is wrong right? Well what about in a hundred years? A thousand years? Please keep in mind that the last person executed in Britain was executed in 1964. Not that long ago is it. Plenty of countries still do execute people. A lot of people. Morals are not like gravity. Morals are man-made. We decide what is right and wrong and we can change our minds at any time. In believing in Moral Nihilism I am saying that I recognise that morals are not fixed and nothing is ever intrinsically, within itself, wrong or right. Again this idea scares people. "If you don't believe in right or wrong then you have nothing to stop you going on a killing spree! You could take what you want with no remorse or conscience!" Not true.

I don't go on killing sprees. I don't steal. I don't torture. The reason I don't do these things is not because I have the idea of Hell held over me to scare me into doing what's right and I am not just blindly following other peoples rules. I don't do these things because I have decided for myself that I shouldn't do those things. Humans have evolved a conscience for a reason and that reason is to survive and get along with others. Now our conscience can be influenced and changed but it is primarily there to help everyone get along. SO I do that which helps humanity and I don't do that which would injure it. I'm sure everyone has had the discussion "Would you kill one person if it saved a 100 others?" (or something similar) Well I would answer that it depends on the one person and the 100 others. If the one person could help create a better world and the 100 others would only damage it then I would let the one live even if he killed the 100 or caused their death. If that one person would damage humanity if I allowed them to live (and there were no alternatives) then I would kill them. No moral law is sacred and no action entirely, intrinsically wrong or good. There are just actions. With the whole 100 days of bloodsport I would probably say that's a bad idea. I don't think humanity would get much use out of 3,000 dead gladiators and a load of mutilated animals.

My third and final (not long now stay with me) core belief is the belief that free will doesn't exist. Yeah how am I going to justify that one. I mean I was just saying all that hippy floaty crap that "you are free to do as you wish!" Well you can kind of... Let me explain.

I believe in Determinism. Hard Determinism to be precise. To understand this view you have to go back to the Big Bang. Now the Big Bang was a rapid expansion of all the matter and particles in the universe. Everything that has existed, does exist and ever will exist was contained in an infinitely small space. Carl Sagan once said that to make an apple pie you must first invent the universe because how can you make a pie with no matter? Now Hard Determinism is based on Newtonian physics namely that every action has a cause. Things that aren't moving don't just start moving spontaneously. They need a cause. Now, if everything in the universe is merely the end product of the Big Bang that means it should be possible (theoretically) to follow everything back to the Big Bang. Every atom of your being is billions of years old (cool huh). Now all of these atoms interact with each other and interact in specific ways. They follow physical rules such as gravity, refraction, friction etc. So the universe is made up of particles interacting with each other following physical laws. Determinism says that if it is possible to know every physical law of the universe and know the position of every piece of matter in the universe at a specific time then you will be able to predict the future. You will know exactly how each particle is going to interact and react and what it's next position will be. Now human beings are made up of particles so it could be argued that if this was possible you would be able to know what someone is going to do next. But that would mean we have no free will. We are stuck on rails and we don't make the decisions.

But hang on, when humans make a decision we FEEL we have decided it ourselves. No-one decided for us we are our own free agents. Psychology says different. Did you know if you paint the walls of a prison red, violence (prisoner on prisoner, prisoner on guard even guard on prisoner) will go up? Did you know if you repaint those very same walls green, violence will go down? We are constantly taking in the world around us though our senses and basing our decisions on what is around us and a lot of this is happening unconsciously. How is that free will? If you can be influenced into committing a violent act just because of a colour what else can you be influenced to do? Derren Brown has made a career of of this very thing. He once convinced someone to assassinate Stephen Fry. Perfectly normal person turned into a would-be assassin. Did that guy freely choose his actions? No. So why do we think we are free to do anything?

Pick a murderer. Any murderer. I'll choose Charles Manson. Look back at their history before their crimes. Did they have a happy, go-lucky childhood where their parents were perfect and nothing bad happened to them. I'm guessing not. Charles Manson's mother was 16 when she had him. She became an alcoholic and once reportedly sold Manson to a waitress for a pitcher of beer. His uncle picked him up a few days later. Throughout his childhood Manson went from one "correctional institute" to another. Basically his life sucked. Does that excuse the crimes he committed? No. Does it go some way to explain them? Possibly. What I am saying is that every decision doesn't just come out of thin air. We base it on what has gone before. We are machines. We have our inputs, we take in information, we analyze it and we have our outputs, our actions and decisions. We aren't in control of our inputs and we aren't always in control of our analysis so how can we say we decided the output?

Look back at your own history. Everything that has ever happened to you has shaped the person you are. You may have scars on your skin but you have a lot more scars that can't be seen. Every interaction you have ever had has influenced your behaviour. So how can you be free?

Now at this point I should say something about Quantum Physics. Don't worry I'm not going into this in depth but it needs mentioning. Now Quantum Mechanics doesn't stick to Newtonian physics. Cause and effect don't really follow through. Everything at the quantum level is probabilistic. This is a problem for Determinism because on the surface it proves it wrong. BUT there are those that argue that the cause in Quantum Mechanics just haven't been found yet. The laws that control these interactions might not have been discovered yet so it could well be possible that Quantum Mechanics does fit a Deterministic view just not yet. Now those who want to believe they are free may well be saying "AHA! You're wrong! I am free because of Quantum Mechanics!" Well actually no. Particles randomly waving around in your head making your decisions isn't any more free is it really. SO any way you cut it you aren't free...

Now again people think of this as depressing. "I am just a machine. A pile of atoms interacting with another pile of atoms and I have no choice! I might as well stay in a cave!" I would disagree. Things may influence us but we also influence things. We are made up of exactly the same "stuff" as a tree, as a mouse, as a blue whale, as a star, as the Earth itself. We are part of an enclosed system. Everything we do keeps the wheels of the universe turning. We are forging a path through the particles and like a lake we leave ripples. Just by standing in a beam of light you are interacting with the universe. Photons are bouncing off your very being and scattering around you. Just by existing you have influenced the course of the universe. Now the fact that you were going to stand in that beam may have been preordained by your past influences and experiences but does that stop it being beautiful? Is a painting any less beautiful because the artist has been influenced by other artists? The music any less sweet? I see the world as a gigantic machine that I am a part of. Whatever state the universe ends up at I am an integral part of that process. If I didn't exist the universe would be different. I am important. I matter because I am made of matter. Now we can use this information to inspire us to go on and do things which will benefit our species. Or you can do something completely other, like I said there is no point to the universe do what seems right. Although our actions may already be determined we don't think or act like that but we should be aware that actions have consequences and the power we hold in our hands to decide the fate of humanity, life and the universe at large. We cannot ever be tricked into thinking we are unimportant. We are just as important as trees and ants and supernovas and electrons.

So that's what I believe. I believe that the world has no meaning, that there are no moral laws and that we have no free will. And I think that it's all rather beautiful.