I can start out with what I don't believe in, I guess. I don't believe in politics. I don't believe in Santa Claus. I don't believe in the Game. I don't believe I'm a supernatural being, because I've always been a natural kind of gal. I believe the people who tried to raise me usually had my best interests at heart, but I don't necessarily believe everything they ever told me. And because of that, I believe I have to learn a lot on my own.
I believe in telling the truth, most of the time, unless lying should happen to be a hell of a lot more useful in the situation. I believe in the importance and value of human life, but I've met people I could do without and have occasionally had to go out of my way to do without them.
I believe that life is very complex and there aren't easy answers to things. I've learned that one the hard way. I believe in experimentation, thinking for yourself, and occasionally being wrong--but trying to get it right. I believe I can't always get everything my way, but I can get a lot of things to go my way if I try. I believe I'm very smart because a lot of people have told me that, and very dumb, because I've done a lot of dumb things. I believe that most people are *making it up as they go along*--and that's what the evidence looks like to me.
I believe in the future. The way things look right now, I'm probably going to be spending a good bit of my time there. Some people the future will suck--I don't. See, we make the future. We decide how it's going to be. Or at any rate--I'm going to decide how the future is for me. Again, I'm going to have to live in it. I think it's a good attitude. And attitude (this is the Philadelphia tawkin') is everything.
I believe in science. Science doesn't answer everything, yet, and that's why I like it. Ever meet somebody with all the answers? I think you see what I mean. There's a lot less "because I said so" and a lot more "because this is how things seem to work" going on. More method, less madness. I believe in results, and consequences, and I believe in what I can see, hear and feel. I believe in taking care of people in the here and now. I believe in trying to find answers, even if I don't always like the answers I get. I haven't lost faith in the idea that there are answers to some questions. I may sometimes feel that there are no *reasons*...but that's just because there are things people do and things that happen in this world, that have more reasons than can be comfortably counted. Nothing is ever simple. Well, except for one thing.
I believe in being good to people that are good to me, in respect for others, and that no one is ever really thoroughly hopeless--because I think the one truest thing, the simplest thing to accept--is that things change. People change. The whole world...changes. So you have to roll with it. Sure, sometimes you feel like you're on a wheel, but just...roll with it. You might win, you might lose (and this here, I'm not completely sure of, but I like to believe in it, anyway), but eventually, everything does come back to you, good or bad. So you just have to try to be as good as you can in the situation, and get the best back.
But that's about it. Everything else? It's just theories.