Why are some emotions looked down upon? Why isn't it just as good to be happy as to be sad?

Hello, I have long wondered of some of the questions I have seen on this website and I am glad to see them answered after discovering this website. But I too have a question, more personal though. This message was not written with intent to be posted but I just wanted to ask everyone this. I have been following this site for a couple of weeks now. I am a sophomore in high school. My Algebra teacher often tells me things that make me "freak out". He once got so deep in this conversation about reality and the universe he just said "It gets to the point where you have to ask yourself, Is any of this any real?". My mind have been permanently scarred by thoughts of reality and I find myself shaking at night, scared, thinking of all these things especially while reading questions on the website. I have recently been showing my friend this site and he has had the same experiences as me. Now to get to the question. Have any of you almost "Lost your mind"? I mean like has your life been changed forever after...

How popular is Bayes' theorem among philosophers? As a physicist, it has had a profound effect on my thinking, and seems to reflect the way we intuitively deal with new evidence presented to us. As a reminder, Bayes' theorem states: Probability(A given B) = Probability(B given A)*Probability(A)/Probability(B) For example, if A is "A revolutionary new theory" and B is "Data from my experiment", then Bayes' theorem tells us that we have to take into account our initial (prior) belief in the theory P(A), given our background knowledge, before even looking at our data.

Is there a logical reason why most people prefer their own opinions rather than someone else's?

Where can I read something about the difference between explanation and justification? How would you put this difference in a few words?

Why isn't Christianity considered evil? After reading the Bible, I noticed that homosexuality is 'abominable', that if anyone chooses to work on a sunday then they should be 'put to death', that slavery is fine, animal sacrifice is fine and that the mentally-ill are possessed by the devil. Why then, do we not actively supress Christianity? How can a Christian legitimately believe that homosexuality, for example, is fine and still call themselves a Christian, despite what it says in the Bible? It seems to me that it is an evil moral theory to subscribe to.

Given that there is no proof for either statement, is it any more valid to say 'there is a God' than it is to say 'there is no God'? Or is the only valid answer 'I don't know if there is a God'?

How can I be sure that I got the right meaning of what some TV reporter just said? Do I just go and check the dictionary? But what if some word isn't in the dictionary? What if the reporter used it in some different sense? And it sure looks possible that the dictionary is wrong. What if it just doesn't make sense to take it as it is in the dictionary? It seems a pretty difficult question... Are there any philosophical theories about this?

When I am thinking, some of my thoughts and ideas are in words. Some are in feelings and emotions. Others are in concepts or pictures. When I am having thoughts that are not in words it is sometimes very difficult to express these thoughts. Is there a way, using science or philosophy or some other means, to get these thoughts and ideas out to others? D.D.

Can we have a POSITIVE understanding of such concepts as infinity? What I mean is that, whilst I am sure that we can well grasp the concept of finiteness, can we do more than negate it (which would yield not-finiteness), can we understand infinity from the inside instead of by negating everything that lies outside of it? Thanks, Andrea Jasson