Tough question.

[fshrink]

What do you believe in?

"Believe" in the sense of assigning an explanatory power to something without *knowing* it as true. Feel free to play with the definition, which is not set in stone.

[Az]

1. I believe that people are basically good

I believe that our society has become ill and we have learned to be cruel to one another.

I believe that the mind is the result of activity in the brain.

I believe that the universe is the result of a continuation of multiverses that interconnect with one another leaving various dimensions folded in on themself and other laws and factors in play with each iteration.

I believe that religions and philosophies undergo evolutionary processes similar to biological entities. Those that exist today have picked up along the way valuable wisdom and insite into our human and social nature. But they can also become aggressive and dominating to our societies and must be kept controled.

[Beetwasher]

2. I Believe That There IS an Objective External Reality

That's similar enough to my actual perceptions of it so that I can effectively learn about it and make accurate observations and predictions. "I" think, therefore "something" is.

I believe in my power to have some effect on that external reality.

I believe in my mind and in my ability to in some ways shape how I perceive that objective world and that "I" have ultimate power over myself (i.e., my feelings about what happens in the objective reality and my behavior in it).

[lazarus]

3. Just one thing

My lucky astrology mood watch.

Thank you, Steve Martin. (Back when he did stand up, and was funny.)

[Jokerman]

8. Some people would say I'm crazy for believing this...

but I believe that robots are stealing my luggage.

Another Steve Martin classic.

[fshrink]

4. When people ask me:

so what do you believe in then, I decided to answer "I believe in language". This, it seems to me is my one and only belief; human language explains everything, perhaps not in an absolute manner but enough for my days. And I can also state honestly : "In the beginning there was the word"... which is actually more like "In the beginning there was syntax". Thanks Noah (!) Chomsky! This usualy has the effect of throwing by believers into an abyss of confusion. Way over their head, unclassical, unexpected... They get paralyzed and change the subject.
Philosophically, this is a little different from Descartes, a little closer to Kant and to quantum mechanics.

[Taxloss]

7. Very good one.

It's interesting how much of the Bible deals with language - the Tower of Babel, the Apostles suddenly being gifted in many tongues. In the beginning there was the word.

[lapislzi]

5. I believe there is a rational explanation

It may be beyond current levels of human comprehension, but I believe one exists.

That's my belief. My hope is that one day it may be known.

[Taxloss]

6. I believe humanity is the best and the worst it gets.

I believe we have, at present, the resources and technology to build a utopia, and the greatest question of our time is why we are not doing so.

I believe we as a race are capable of so much more, and that organised and centralised religion is one of the things that frustrates that possibility.

I believe that in the deeper confines of physics there is a remarkable and transformative mystery that will astonish and change the world, but it will not be a God.

[Synnical]

9. I try not to use the word

I prefer I "think", or "as I recall", or "to the best of my knowledge".

We had big discussion about this on American Atheists Chat. One member suggested atheists should abandon the use of the word believe altogether. He stated the correct term is "logically induce" - to which I had to laugh. Can you imagine having a general conversation with someone and saying that you can "logically induce that the sun will 'rise' tomorrow"? That lead to another discussion on whether such reasoning was inductive or deductive. I don't think a consensus was ever achieved.

Or maybe the term he used was "deductively induce" . . . ??

-Cindy