h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Not sure. I'm not an atheist, but my theism is based upon my conclusions on weighing the evidence that is available to me. I accept that not everyone has access to the same evidence that I do, and accept that even if they did, they might reasonably come to a different conclusion. I don't think the existence of God can be proved at the present time, but neither do I think that it can be disproved. So I don't think that a tentative belief in God is any more irrational than not beliving in God.

Anyway, I don't "believe" in scientific method. It seems the most useful way of discovering things about the world, but I have reservations about the use of observation, as observation itself must (to some extent) be theory dependent (what we see is influenced by what we know). However, there's nothing better appeared yet, nor is likely to.

But the real reason I'm thinking about joining ARS is just in case there are other societies with other "Father Jack" quotes as banners and I can complete the set!

Non-existence can't be proven, but I'd likely disagree with your conclusion even if I'd have access to the same evidence that you do. However, that is no reason not to join the ARS.

Proper use of the Scientific Method requires having reservations about observation, and a philosophical examination reveals that it is merely the most useful way of discovering things about the world (that we know of). In my opinion, acknowledging this consitutes 'belief' in the method.

I can't say whether or not you should join, since I'm horribly biased. But if you decide for it, you're very welcome.

I don't even know who 'Father Jack' is, and I'd have though 'I don't believe it' was too generic to link to anyone specific. But I don't know what Gnomon might have intended.

I 'believe' in the scientific method bot am thoroughly disillusioned and with 'sceptical' of its insistence on having "everything louder than everything else" - that is, on studying minutiae in splendid isolation with little or no examination of its environs and cause-and-effect implications of meddling with them.