Here are some of the things I believe in and have convictions about. Each item has commentary and a rating of how "certain" I am of it being true and/or important. These ratings should be close to current if not indeed current. However, they may change at any time for a variety of reasons as my beliefs and convictions change for a variety of reasons. Finally, this is not even close to a comprehensive list nor it is a list of the most important beliefs and convictions I have but rather a combination of things I wish to share, that are on my mind, and things I feel can feel pretty confidant about.
I believe the condition of being a human is becoming objectively better on planet earth
For most of history people didn't live as long, dealt with more pain of both a physical and emotional nature. While there is still way too much suffering and while many animals are suffering, the vast majority of humans are no longer living in crushing poverty, while being ruled over by capricious authoritarian leaders with little to no hope of ever improving their conditions while knowing seemingly next to nothing about the world around them, surrounding themselves with all manner of superstitions and needless fears. Perhaps later I will but in some graphics from the UN and other places showing the rise in income, education, life expectancy, democracy, etc... Belief/Conviction rating 8/10
I believe extra-planetary intelligences have visited earth
Going at least as far back as the Roswell crash and the seemingly sloppy cover-up to more modern video of Naval pilots viewing, recording, and testifying to seeing craft move in ways they believe no human craft could, along with so very many stories from credible sources of what they have seen in the sky, I think we have probably been visited. Maybe are visitors are extra-dimensional, maybe they are simply biological beings from other planets, maybe something we don't really understand, but there seems to be visitations of intelligent something. I have spent a lot of time reading books and watching videos on this subject while trying to stay away from sensationalist, hokey stuff, and to me it seems that the people who dismiss such ideas are often not very knowledgeable about the evidence, or just going along with the other majority of "intellectuals" who flatly (with their reasons) deny anything is happening. Nothing can or has been proven yet, but this is my hypothesis. Good sources in my opinion are the book "Above Top Serect" by Timmothy Good, The interviews with Commander David Fravor and his wingman amongst others. Belief/Conviction rating = 9/10
I believe bad parenting is a meta problem contributing significantly to many other problems
I have been a high school teacher for 22 year as of 6/7/2023. More, I teach psychology and it's my first love academically. During this time I have done a lot of reading, listening, and observation of students and people of all walks of life. To me, it's quite clear that most all (not quite all) of the students who are doing poorly with their behavior, grades, or some combo come from homes that are not facilitating emotional, social, cognitive, and/or scholastic success and are often impeding it. Lack of love from parents, lock of clear consistent good values and rules, and even bad to very bad role models are mostly the issues. There are other things that are issues as well, constant moving of families, access to drugs or alcohol, but must of this stuff starts to wander into my category of lack of clear and consistent good values and rules.
More, bad parenting is a meta problem: a problem that stand above many other problems such that if bad parenting was reduced these other problems would see reductions as well. Gun violence, gang violence, drug and alcohol use and abuse, teen pregnancy school drop outs, crime in general, homelessness, some mental illness, teen suicide, high school graduation rates, number of people on government assistance, voter apathy, obesity and other health issues, and so on. It's not that all of the cases of the items on this list are due to poor parenting and upbringing, but a significant number of that cases are from that.
A good example of this argument is foster care. To be in foster care in most cases you were taken from your parents as they were unfit to raise you, as opposed to adoption. This means that in most of these cases the child was abused/neglected by their parents during their important formative years. While many foster parents are well-intended they can't make up for the poor upbringing during the formative years and the impact of knowing your biological parents didn't know how to love you and the lasting impact of feeling unlovable or wrong somehow. Here of some statistics on kids "aging out" of foster care:
- 1 in 4 report being homeless from 19 to 21.
-1 in 5 report being incarcerated from 19-21.
-70% of girls will become pregnant before 21
-only 3% get a college degree
-1 in 2 will develop a substance dependence.
-80% of people on death row spent some time in foster care
There's lot of statistics like this.: https://www.fosterclub.com/blog/statistics-and-research/current-state-foster-care
https://thefosterproject.org/foster-facts
Clearly, bad parenting is an issue, though much of the parenting I am thinking of it not as bad as what has happened to the youth you have been put into the foster care system. I am not certain how as a society we should address this problem. Schools have a role to play in helping make up for deficits some kids have from their failing parents, and schools serve as first reporters for kids who are abused. Laws prosecuting parents can serve as a disincentive to be a bad parent or maybe even a parent at all. I am 100% in favor of free birth control for all (condoms and pills) at any age past maybe 16, no questions asked. I hope we find better ways to keep improving the quality of life for young people as they become adults who become the society we live for better and sometimes, worse. Belief/Conviction rating = 10/10
Note:
Someday in the far future perhaps we will have mandatory free birth control for all young people (vasectomies would be good, but there might be better options by then). It will be free to get it reversed but you will have to make an appointment and show up and be at least 18 and a high school graduate. So the default, unless you apply to have it reversed will be sex will not create kids you're not ready for. I suspect we will look back at the times before and shake our heads in the same way we look back at times such as when people didn't extend voting rights to women and the like. Feel free to think this sounds crazy, I know society isn't ready yet.
Near Death Experiences
If you had talked to me sometime around 2019, I was going through a pretty hard-core atheism phase. However, I started reading more about Near Death Experiences (NDEs). I had already been interested in the and read a book in college on my own from two Ph.Ds from Sweden studying NDEs in American and India (two very different countries). The more I read, the more I think there might very well be some type of after life so to speak. It's frustrating because while so much of the experience is similar, there is still a lot that's different: which makes it seem like a subjective delusion. However, again, there's a lot that similar and so many people have reported these experiences that are very real to them. There has been little: but some, collaboration with some Shared Death Experiences, but no good way for our current science to prove or disprove these claims. I want them to be true and try to stay aware of my bias. Belief/Conviction rating = 6/10