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legalmooseFriend of mine sent me this. I don't agree with all of the statements, but I thought it was interesting enough to post it.
---------------
Epistemology
1.Finite beings can never know absolute truth.
2.The scientific method -- guess, test, repeat --
is the best recipe yet discovered for finding
closer and closer approximations to truth.
3.A seeker of truth is willing to abandon beliefs
when faced with contrary evidence.
4.Faith is the desire not to know what is true.
Ontology
1.The belief in an omnipotent god who monitors
and meddles in our personal affairs is a paranoid
delusion.
2.If existence has a purpose, it is to discover,
create, and understand.
3.Consciousness is the degree to which a complex
information system is capable of observing itself.
4.Conscious systems, such as the human brain, are
the tools with which the universe contemplates
itself.
5.Information exists as patterns or signals
represented in some physical form.
6.We don't yet know all of physics.
7.The identity of a person is the sum of their
information content and processing -- memories,
emotions, knowledge, desires, prejudices, and
attitudes.
8.Identity is an emergent property of a person's
physical structure.
9.Information, and processes performed on it, can
be copied from one kind of physical substrate to
another.
10.Human beings are, in principle, duplicable.
Ethics
1.Any being capable of conceptualizing about
future events, communicating their conceptions to
me, and acting in accord with their expressed
conceptions, is a person.
2.Wrong consists of harming another person
unnecessarily.
3.Evil is the enjoyment of doing wrong.
4.A contract is an agreement between persons,
expressing their intentions and obligations
contingent on future events.
5.A duty is an obligation, voluntarily accepted,
to act or not act in a specified way.
6.Fraud is the willful acceptance of a duty or a
contractual obligation with the intention of not
fulfilling it.
7.A right is the expectation of freedom from
interference in choosing how to act or not act.
8.Rights are created and maintained by being
asserted and defended.
9.Rights are not inherent, "natural," or "god
given".
10.Rights are not granted or created by laws or
political documents, although they may be
recognized by such conventions.
11.Rights are negative in nature. The assertion
of a positive "right" that creates some positive
obligation in others without their consent is a
disguised demand for subsidy, tribute, or ransom.
12.A person alone on a deserted island can assert
the "right" to an education, to food, housing, or
health care, but they will not be provided.
13.The universe is not a person. It does not
recognize any obligations to us, nor do we owe it
anything.
14.Ownership of something is the right to use,
abuse, or destroy it.
15.I own my body and my mind.
16.I assert the right to nurture, feed, medicate,
exercise, and develop my body and my mind as I
will.
17.I assert the right to think as I will.
18.I assert the right to speak, write, and
publish as I will.
19.I assert the right to conceal and keep private
what I will.
20.I assert the right to read, hear, view, and
enjoy what and how I will.
21.I assert the right to love how and whom I will.
22.I assert the right to live where and how I
will.
23.I assert the right to end my existence when
and how I will.
24.I own my time, my labor, and the products of
my labor.
25.I assert the right to plan, build, create,
invent, and program as I will.
26.I assert the right to destroy what I have
created.
27.I assert the right to trade how and with whom
I will.
28.I recognize these rights in any person who
recognizes mine in turn.
29.I assert the right to arm and protect myself
from interference with these rights.
30.Beings incapable of recognizing the rights of
other beings are not persons.
Aesthetics
1.Statements that are scientifically meaningless
can still hold emotional truth.
2.Uniformity is monotonous.
Politics
1.Governments were created by the powerful as a
cheaper and more efficient means of controlling
the weak.
2.The leftist fallacy, that the powerful can be
weakened by strengthening the government, is akin
to thinking that the rider can be slowed down by
speeding up the horse.
3.Taxation is theft.
4.Any political system that relies on some
segment of the population acting contrary to
their own perceived self-interest will degenerate
into tyranny.
5.Indiscriminate law-making fosters contempt for
the very concept of law.
Economics
1.Immigrants are a boon to commerce, culture, and
cuisine.
2.The government has no business minding my
business
---------------
Epistemology
1.Finite beings can never know absolute truth.
2.The scientific method -- guess, test, repeat --
is the best recipe yet discovered for finding
closer and closer approximations to truth.
3.A seeker of truth is willing to abandon beliefs
when faced with contrary evidence.
4.Faith is the desire not to know what is true.
Ontology
1.The belief in an omnipotent god who monitors
and meddles in our personal affairs is a paranoid
delusion.
2.If existence has a purpose, it is to discover,
create, and understand.
3.Consciousness is the degree to which a complex
information system is capable of observing itself.
4.Conscious systems, such as the human brain, are
the tools with which the universe contemplates
itself.
5.Information exists as patterns or signals
represented in some physical form.
6.We don't yet know all of physics.
7.The identity of a person is the sum of their
information content and processing -- memories,
emotions, knowledge, desires, prejudices, and
attitudes.
8.Identity is an emergent property of a person's
physical structure.
9.Information, and processes performed on it, can
be copied from one kind of physical substrate to
another.
10.Human beings are, in principle, duplicable.
Ethics
1.Any being capable of conceptualizing about
future events, communicating their conceptions to
me, and acting in accord with their expressed
conceptions, is a person.
2.Wrong consists of harming another person
unnecessarily.
3.Evil is the enjoyment of doing wrong.
4.A contract is an agreement between persons,
expressing their intentions and obligations
contingent on future events.
5.A duty is an obligation, voluntarily accepted,
to act or not act in a specified way.
6.Fraud is the willful acceptance of a duty or a
contractual obligation with the intention of not
fulfilling it.
7.A right is the expectation of freedom from
interference in choosing how to act or not act.
8.Rights are created and maintained by being
asserted and defended.
9.Rights are not inherent, "natural," or "god
given".
10.Rights are not granted or created by laws or
political documents, although they may be
recognized by such conventions.
11.Rights are negative in nature. The assertion
of a positive "right" that creates some positive
obligation in others without their consent is a
disguised demand for subsidy, tribute, or ransom.
12.A person alone on a deserted island can assert
the "right" to an education, to food, housing, or
health care, but they will not be provided.
13.The universe is not a person. It does not
recognize any obligations to us, nor do we owe it
anything.
14.Ownership of something is the right to use,
abuse, or destroy it.
15.I own my body and my mind.
16.I assert the right to nurture, feed, medicate,
exercise, and develop my body and my mind as I
will.
17.I assert the right to think as I will.
18.I assert the right to speak, write, and
publish as I will.
19.I assert the right to conceal and keep private
what I will.
20.I assert the right to read, hear, view, and
enjoy what and how I will.
21.I assert the right to love how and whom I will.
22.I assert the right to live where and how I
will.
23.I assert the right to end my existence when
and how I will.
24.I own my time, my labor, and the products of
my labor.
25.I assert the right to plan, build, create,
invent, and program as I will.
26.I assert the right to destroy what I have
created.
27.I assert the right to trade how and with whom
I will.
28.I recognize these rights in any person who
recognizes mine in turn.
29.I assert the right to arm and protect myself
from interference with these rights.
30.Beings incapable of recognizing the rights of
other beings are not persons.
Aesthetics
1.Statements that are scientifically meaningless
can still hold emotional truth.
2.Uniformity is monotonous.
Politics
1.Governments were created by the powerful as a
cheaper and more efficient means of controlling
the weak.
2.The leftist fallacy, that the powerful can be
weakened by strengthening the government, is akin
to thinking that the rider can be slowed down by
speeding up the horse.
3.Taxation is theft.
4.Any political system that relies on some
segment of the population acting contrary to
their own perceived self-interest will degenerate
into tyranny.
5.Indiscriminate law-making fosters contempt for
the very concept of law.
Economics
1.Immigrants are a boon to commerce, culture, and
cuisine.
2.The government has no business minding my
business
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no subject
Right on.
Thank you. :)