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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 6860061" data-attributes="member: 4937">"Settled science", for example.Or you could just say beliefs generally, and stop Othering other people's beliefs. I'm not tossing it out at all.  I fully accept that to be dogma the person must hold that the belief is incontrovertible and based on reliable authority, and have explained that in my arguments regarding what is dogma.  What I'm not doing that you would prefer I do, is divide humanity into two groups, one you believe is like yourself holding little or nothing dogmatically, and an Other which holds things without reason or emotional maturity, merely because an authority said so.  Sure, but in my experience people aren't nearly as good at questioning their own beliefs as you seem to think that they are.  Almost all beliefs are held on the basis of someone else's authority, and equally unquestioned and undoubted, and so dogma under the definition we both agree to.  If you are not truly agnostic on something, chances are it is dogma, and you will not test it or allow it to be tested, and will fight tooth and nail to hold on to that belief.  Because you are human, and that's how humans generally behave.  And to the extent that humanity does apply its reason, and test and doubt its beliefs, that reason and testing and doubting applies equally to beliefs of all sorts.  Religious beliefs, political beliefs, and philosophical beliefs aren't off in special categories of things that aren't tested and doubted and specially held with or without reason.  That's just an accusation people make in order to avoid having to deal with the fact that other people don't agree with them, and may have reasonable reasons for not doing so.</blockquote>

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