What would most shake your world view?
 

Philosophy is in a large part about how we understand the world. Throughout history there have been political events (eg. WW2), scientific discoveries (eg Heliocentric universe) and events in people's personal lives (eg discovering that your father is fallible) that have turned people's world views upside down. What event or discovery would most change or has most changed your world view?

Absolute solid proof of something supernatural would shake my views up a bit.

Extraterrestial Life would throw a monkey wrench in my present world view. I presently think we are alone here.
Either God exists and all of the Universe was placed here for us or the agnostic view, We and all other life is just an incredible combination of carbon atoms.

yeah, pretty much same here.
Let me see an astrologer work wonders in the lab, or let me see Uri Geller read minds in a controlled environment.

I'm having trouble coming up with something b/c my worldview is based around uncertainty -- that just about anything could happen. I think most bizarre phenomena could fit into my paradigm b/c I have no especially strong convictions about how things work.

That having been said, if I died and found myself face-to-face with the personified Judeo-Christian God, I would be pretty surprised. Or the personified Judeo-Christian Satan, with red skin and a pitchfork.

I think that an event such as that that would show me that something that some peoople are certain about is actually true would make me have to reformulate my whole model of an uncertain world.

Meeting a time traveller.

real proof of a creator, and I dont mean that fluffy warm feeling in someones gut.

The invention (or disclosure) of working cold fusion. Imagine power only costing pennies! So much cheap power, we could probably stop using fossil fuels to power machines. So much would change for us by using the power that's already abundant in everything around us.

If I met a morman or a JW that actually made sense to me. Then I would know i have become my father

if you could prove to me that there was no God, of any type.

If a giant lightning bolt smote me in the ass on my way to school. I think absolute proof that there is a diety watching us, or that our destinies are pre-assigned would shake me up quite a bit. I exult in the sheer randomness of life, and I wouldn't like the thought of not being in control of my future. Likewise evolution being found untrue would probably destroy the logic behind many of the things I believe, and I wouldn't like that one bit.

Having the government tell the truth and not conceal information.

Meeting God.

seeing a hovering ufo up close and personal and maybe some occupants

Armageddon without salvation. Demons walk the earth, but God does nothing sort of thing.

You ever been to London?

I think the biggest "possible" occurence would be to have my own future death predicted, likely from a medical diagnosis. Though, I have never been to London, so I dunno. :p

god dam dude that made my day

as for my answer if aleins landed or worst invaded

that would change my world veiw

Some movement across a dimension, like time or "invisibility" -- being there and not being there at the same time

Meeting people who honestly believe peace is the answer. And are willing to sacrifice for it.

http://www.christusrex.org/www1/sdc/tank-1.jpg


I have such a profound respect for this human being I can't begin to describe it.

When the American economy recovers.

living a day as someone else.

Every little thing that happens to me shakes my "world view" to its foundations. I have a very unstable "world view." I really prefer it that way and so have cultivated it over the years.

Heheh, I take it you've seen "Being John Malkovich" ?


What would shake my world would be if humans suddenly started being honest, and nice to one another. No more hiding behind mask personalities, but just being the way they truly are.

That is actually the Atheistic view. The Agnostic view is "I don't know."

And, though this isn't a thread to debate this, I think we aren't alone. The probability that we are the only life in the Universe has to be extremely low... think of all the billions upon billions upon billions of planets out there. No way (in my mind) are we the only life.

Anyway...

Being an Atheist, proof of the supernatural would throw a wrench in my current outlook on life I think :P

I would be absolutely shaken if destiny was proven to me and all of the choices I thought I had made were actually predetermined. That would be metaphysical suicide for me.

Same here. It would be a very welcome suprise however.

Proof of God, proof of no God, extraterrestrials. Any of these would totally make me change the way I think about my place in the world.
If I could actually know what everyone is thinking in some sort of telepathic way my world would change. It would definitly clear up alot of questions I have.

Meeting an extraterrestrial. It would have to be an irrefutable experience, more so than simply seeing an alien-looking vessel flying around. For some reason, knowing whether or not a Creator exists doesn't interest me as much. I'm more interested in knowing about any advanced alien races.

if i were drafted... and had to go to war... that would fuck my mind totally.. or if i lost someone very close to me (which is bound to happen.. cuz.. everyone dies.. sooner or later) i would jus prefer the later... you know... delay the inevitable!

if weed was legalized and taxed in the United States. The world would take a step towards peace and happiness.

It's happened
The first time I saw the announcement of cloning successfully.

It gave me shivers & I was numb,
I felt that this was what it was like to find out about the Atomic bomb when it came out.
Just understanding the potentials and implications...most people don't really get it.

I think the next things would be
"safe teleportation"
"interstellar travel"
"time-travel"

But I think the most would be having the woman I loved in the past,
decide to come to me.

I know, pathetic isn't it?

I think that a lot of people understand right where you're coming from there. I know it would turn things upside-down for me.

Bush admitting he was wrong about WMDs in Iraq, the partial birth abortion ban, and not signing the Kyoto treaty and then announcing that he would will be finishing out this term and not seeking reelection because he doesn't feel that he is qualified to lead this country.

Excellent thoughts, MuadDib. That would shake me a bit, too.

The thing that would shake my world view most is if some entity were to offer to buy my soul in return for a wish. My dearest wish is such that my soul would remain intact, the entity would be no more, and everything would be mine.

It would probably shake your world views, too.

That the ability to percieve anything for a human, be it physically or mentally, is fundamentally and irrevocably flawed, other than that my world view is impossible to shake, aside from that all it can be is error corrected.

If a given person could identify, with 100% accuracy, what another person actually believes in.

http://www.christusrex.org/www1/sdc/tank-1.jpg
You're referring to the driver of the lead tank who didn't run his stupid ass over, right?

You've never been to Boulder, CO and seen the hippies and anti-everything rallies...:lol: I laugh at their stupidity...(you would too if you heard their rally speaches in person...)
Nor have you met the people from England and Europe who decided to go to Iraq during the beginning of the US invasion and be human shields for Iraq's hospitals and other civilian buildings... The stupid thing about that was that they complained when Sadam putting them in front of military targets instead...:lol: I laugh even harder at this kind of stupidity. I'm not trying to be disrespectful for anyone willing to die for peace. I think it's a nobel cause if carried our right. But you shouldn't go to Iraq to be a human shield and then compain when you get put in front of a military target. One should be smart enough to know that it was going to be that way with the lack of morals that that government had. That's just my opinion, and I don't mean to piss anyone off by it.
Sorry about rambling on about something slightly off the initial thread subject.

I don't know if there is anything in this world that is actually possible that can happen and turn my beliefs upside down. I guess if Bill Gates and Microsoft suddenly became generous rather than greedy, and actually made a product that would not ever crash on me (trust me... I'll get it to crash somehow or another, right when I need it not to...), then my view of that aspect of the would would be shaken. Perhaps also the absolute proof that there wasn't a god or other supernatural being of any kind. That would shake up my worldly views. Overall I'm pretty open to new and obscure ideas, and my beliefs are set up in a way that they're flexable and continue to evolve as I travel through life.

Controlled Fusion would give us power over matter itself. Extended to the far end, we could create every element on the periodic table simply by using fusion generators to slam bigger and bigger atoms together. We'd never want for anything as a species or a culture ever again. The entire economic structure of the world would break down, since nothing material would have inherent value anymore. Ideas would be the only thing worth exchanging, but they'd no longer be worth fighting over because control of natural resources would be of no value for the groups that espouse conflicting philosophies.

I hope this happens in my lifetime.

Would you really change how you live, because i don't think i would.

that wasn't really the question. The question was what would deal a great blow to how you percieve the world. A world where the future can be told by the positions of the stars millions of miles away is a world radially different to how I believe the world actually is.
Proof of such things would indeed force me to rexamine my understanding of the world.

Discovery of other human-like life forms would definitely shake my world view. Also a definitive answer on the origins of man. Very intriguing.

Finding that George W. Bush was right would probably shake my world view to the point of insanity. Fortunately, the odds of that are similar to him winning the nobel in literature, so I am not worried.

I hate to burst your bubble but people will always have something to fight over since ideas will usually clash, and land will become more precious. Unless you hand everyone their own universe, wars will always exist in one form or another.

What would shake my world view? If I could see myself the way others see me.

Falling in love, maybe?

If the suffering stopped and didn't come back. No more samsara.

Hell, if the guy can win presidency without being elected, who knows?

Meeting myself, either from time-travel, or from cloning, just seeing a seperate entity that somehow shared my identity would really freak me out.

or

the ghosts of all the aborted fetuses throughout history rising up and taking arms against humankind.

or

finding out that some long-dead polytheistic cult was the only "correct" religion.

or

Waking up as somebody else.

or

Apes with weapons.