I make an active, admittedly imperfect, effort to avoid dogma. I believe that all beliefs should be tentative and malleable to new information and assessment. However, that doesn't mean that one shouldn't take a tentative stand on certain issues. It also doesn't mean that we can't hold some tentative matters to be more or less solidly supported.
So, I decided to take a look at what positions I held that I assess as "most supported". This would be the closest thing to dogma that I personally hold. In other words, the matters I am most reluctant to change, and which would require the most significant of information to convince me otherwise. And they are...
1) There is one Truth.
2) No one knows Truth with perfection.
3) There are superior and inferior ways to approximate Truth.
4) Empirical evidence is a superior way to approximate Truth, mysticism inferior.
5) We are all interconnected - our happiness one.
6) To seek happiness is wise.
7) To confuse happiness with pleasure is unwise.
8) Pleasure and pain result from our focus, not our circumstance.
9) Virtue results in happiness.
10) Virtue and wisdom are synonymous.
So, I decided to take a look at what positions I held that I assess as "most supported". This would be the closest thing to dogma that I personally hold. In other words, the matters I am most reluctant to change, and which would require the most significant of information to convince me otherwise. And they are...
1) There is one Truth.
2) No one knows Truth with perfection.
3) There are superior and inferior ways to approximate Truth.
4) Empirical evidence is a superior way to approximate Truth, mysticism inferior.
5) We are all interconnected - our happiness one.
6) To seek happiness is wise.
7) To confuse happiness with pleasure is unwise.
8) Pleasure and pain result from our focus, not our circumstance.
9) Virtue results in happiness.
10) Virtue and wisdom are synonymous.
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