When being wrong doesnt hurt

I can give you a couple of instances where if you are wrong, you may be just as well off as if you are right.
I will start with Christianity.
People are passionate about Religion, there are many variations on the theme. Everyone believes theirs is the best or the "Right" way to praise the creator of all that we humans enjoy in our short time on Earth and the place beyond. People are so passionate they will argue about it, its divisive, it brings hate and prejudice, it has caused many wars to be waged in the name of a creator, or as in some cases a war fought in the name of a prophet. In some cases Religion has caused mass suicides. It has caused other people to just take others lives. Those are the extreme cases obviously.
In the not so extreme cases what does ones Christian belief hurt? Example: take Pascals wager. Pascal's Wager can be presented in many different forms, usually something like this:
"If you believe, and God exists, you gain everything. If you disbelieve, and God exists, you lose everything."
Sounds pretty simple for an investment of your time to be essentially a better human being. It either pays off in the end or it doesn't. You really haven't lost anything by believing and tailoring your life to be a better person. The Ten Commandments really are not bad a list to live by.
_____________________________________

Now take Global Warming. Wow the opinions on this one differ greatly. I haven't seen it spark any wars yet. I do think it has caused death to extremists on both sides of the issue although I could never prove it was the true underlying cause for any one's death. Some people are willing to die for a cause, and some are willing to take a life for one. If I were to believe that humans were the cause of Global Warming, and I chose to modify my life accordingly, what have I lost? What have I gained? Being wrong will only mean that I conserve energy, recycle, and be Eco-friendly. Choosing this opinion has no downside. There are no ill effects. I would be perfectly content with being wrong that Humans are a large part of Global Warming, and would actually hope that I was wrong.

What other things could be so harmless to be wrong? To live an alternate lifestyle to do your part to change things for the better only to find out it wasn't the way you thought it was, but you could still feel good you did your part to better your life, and the lives of others?

4 comments:

Wawa said...

I agree on both counts.

Even though a lot of the "green" solutions sometimes have just as bad side effects on something else, recycling, conserving, all good things.

Ski said...

Well..I will give you an example of where people may be very wrong in an attempt to do good. Ecological food. If everyone on the planet decided to only eat ecological food which is supposed to "be better for your body and our environment", there would be no more forests, as we would have to chop it all down in order to get larger fields to grow the cereal/corn/etc without artificial fertilizers...you need larger areas if the farmers are going to recieve the same outcome of the harvest. Third world countries which in many cases have poorer soil will not be able to grow anything (nor be able to sell their artificial fertilized cereal)...aaaaand un-fertilized cereal tends to contain more toxic mold than the fertilized one. People, there is a reason we started fertilizing and spraying food to begin with!
Ok, Im done now.

Beatnik said...

Ahhhhhhhh!

Living better through Chemistry! I love it!

You saw where I lived Linni. There were cows dumping truckloads of Fertilizer, and Miles of open land that has pretty fertile soil as it is. Miles from the closest Forest.
But I agree with ya on what yer sayin'!

smith said...

Free on-line slots are virtually equivalent to their 우리카지노 real cash counterparts