We'll start with what I don't believe, cause that's easy. I'm not a Christian, Jew, Muslim, 'witch', Satanist, Pagan (neo- or otherhow), Hindu, Buddhist, Confucian, Mormon, JW, or otherwise religious person. I am an atheist in the classical sense, derived from the prefix a- (without) and the root theos (deity). Can I prove that there's nothing out there that might meet someone's definition of a god? No, but then, other people's definitions of something so controversial can hardly be expected to govern me. I can demonstrate, to my own satisfaction, that there's nothing out there that I need to be worshipping, and that's all it takes. I also don't believe in the supernatural, though I am willing to concede the paranormal as a potentially open question. (What's the difference?)
So moving on from that, what _do_ I believe? I believe that the universe is bounded by and runs entirely according to a set of observable physical laws, which makes me more or less what they used to call a materialist, before the eighties. I believe that life came into existence in a very simple form by chance, and changed by a _non-directed but non-chance process_ which we refer to as evolution to include all the forms we see today. I believe that mankind is neither inherently good nor inherently evil, but some of both, based on his evolutionary heritage. I believe that people, though perhaps not exactly perfectible, have the potential to be a lot better off than they are now, which makes me sort of a secular humanist. I think that this improvement has to take into account the fact that we are social creatures and that our present evolutionary success is based entirely on our ability, imperfect as it is, to cooperate, so I'm definitely not an Objectivist. If we're going to edge that far into politics, I might as well admit that I'm slightly left-leaning economically and very left-leaning socially.
In sum, I'm the sort of creature that in an enlightened climate like Sweden or Ithaca, NY is pretty much the norm but in most of the good old USofA is sadly a curiosity. This loneliness has tended to color my attitude cynical and even a little dark, as you may have noticed, but people seem to be under the impression that I'm a basically a nice sort of person. You won't catch me admitting that anywhere else on this site though.