It probably makes sense to start out with the last question first.
If you do or don't believe, please explain why and how you qualify your opinion, belief or non-belief.
I take a probabilistic view of knowledge. Truth is basically a cognitive ideal. In real life we can rarely if ever eliminate the possibility of error and what we are left with are the varying likelihoods that our assertions are true. It might range from near certainty in the case of logical proofs, to something close to chance when we are making uneducated guesses.
Do you believe in aliens?
I think that the probability is high that something more-or-less analogous to earth life exists out there among the stars. Perhaps in countless places.
My belief is that it will probably be quite different than earth life. There are probably lots of different ways to accomplish similar functions and I think that it's unlikely that a totally separate lineage of alien life will end up with the same DNA code and the same biochemical pathways that we see here. I don't expect space alients to be humanoid bipeds.
Do you believe other universes exist?
I'm not sure if I know what the phrase 'other universes' means. Other disjoint space-time continua that aren't continuous with our own? Very possible, but I don't have any way of knowing about them. The many-worlds interpretation of QM? I think that's very cool and I'd really like it to be true, but I don't give it a very high probability. Religion's heavens and spiritualism's higher planes? A low enough probability that they don't really enter into my thinking.
Do you believe in ghosts?
Low probability. I think that belief in ghosts is fascinating though, but that's something else.
Do you believe in paranormal phenomena?
I'm not sure what the phrase 'paranormal phenomena' refers to or includes. I'd give most of the traditional claims about telepathy and telekenesis a low probability. But I do think that there's a very high probability that what I call 'anomalous events' do occasionally occur. We don't have complete knowledge of our universe or even of ourselves, so there's still plenty of room for hitherto unknown phenomena to put in an appearance. I'm something of a Fortean.
Do you believe in reincarnation?
No, I don't consider it likely. It isn't consistent with my physicalist/functionalist ideas about mind.
Do you believe in multiple gods?
I don't believe in any gods. But I can't totally eliminate the possibility that something like gods exist. Low probability in my estimation.
Do you believe in time travel?
As an actuality, not much. I don't think that anyone knows how to travel in time at present, and I haven't seen any persuasive evidence that we are being visited by time-travelers from another epoch. But unlike people like Hawking, I'm not ready to just dismiss time travel as impossible because it runs the risk of leading to temporal paradoxes. Possible but unproven.
Do you believe God has a gender?
I think that it's exceedingly unlikely that whatever the ultimate basis of reality turns out to be, that it's a person just like us, except puffed-up really big. I don't find religious anthropomorphism at all credible.
Do you believe in metaphysics?
It's a specialty of philosophy, so sure. Laymen use the word a different way, to refer to pretty much any kind of imagination about supposedly "cosmic" things. There's little there that's credible, or even interesting.
Do you believe in neopaganism, theosophy, gaia, gnosticism, spiritualism, or universalism?
Not really. Universalism to some extent, I guess.
Do you believe other religions are incorrect other than your own?
I don't think that any religious tradition provides us with credible answers to the big questions. But some of them do include teachings and disciplines that may represent useful spiritual paths. Buddhist meditation, Hindu yoga, some of the Sufi things or the Christian contemplative traditions, for example. It's an open question how far any of these paths can truly be followed without surrendering to credulity.
