Evidence for the existence of God

[Angrboda]

Because it is useful to the survival of our species.  That's all that evolution requires for there to be a selective advantage to preserving this feature.  But you already know this.

That answer doesn’t address the sense of my question. You’re just saying that it works. So what? Many species survive and thrive without rationality. Claws work because they are sharp. Camouflage works because it blends with the background. What is it about reason that makes it work? I say, reason works because it produces real knowledge of external reality. You frequently seem to pooh-pooh this notion. The senses are unreliable, you say. Our interpretations are biased, you say. And that is true to some extent. So also is our sense of time unreliable and subjective. That is why we invented clocks and calendars to correct our limitations. In the same way, we have developed conceptual tools from symbolic logic to the modern scientific method to overcome fallacious thinking and interpretive bias. We have developed physical tools, from rulers to microscopes, to supplement and correct the senses. But none of that matters, you say, if the efficacy of the tools themselves is suspect since they are the products of conceptual bias and deceptive senses That kind of radical skepticism leads nowhere. And it comes with a price, a very steep one at that.

See specifically at 6:45 concerning the Australian jewel beetle.





Reason works because it produces fitness. Whether that involves valid interpretations of reality is secondary. I'm sure you've seen the demonstrations of change blindness where for a customer filling out a form, the clerk servicing them is switched and in 40% of cases they don't notice the change. Where is knowledge of external reality then?