in talking to people, and talking to myself, I find that there is little difference between what people want the universe to be like, and what people believe the universe probably is like.

when I have philosophical conversations with people, I'm starting to just ask "what do you want the universe to be like?" — I think this causes less issues of people worrying about how to justify their beliefs, especially since some people have pretty good reasons in their subconscious for why they believe something, without being able to articulate those reasons.