RE: I will prove to you that God exists
April 11, 2025 at 9:29 am
(This post was last modified: April 11, 2025 at 9:37 am by Alan V.)
(April 11, 2025 at 8:25 am)Belacqua Wrote: Science, obviously, uses methodological materialism as its foundation, and that is just not the right approach for metaphysical questions. Science works really really well precisely because it doesn't attempt to answer metaphysical questions.
I had to Google "metaphysical questions." Here is what I found:
"AI Overview
Metaphysics, a branch of philosophy, explores fundamental questions about reality, existence, and the nature of reality, often delving into concepts beyond the scope of empirical science. Here are some examples of metaphysical questions:
What is the nature of reality?
Does the world really exist?
What is the meaning of life?
Do we have free will?
What is consciousness?
Does God exist?
What is the nature of space and time?
What is the relationship between mind and matter?
What is the nature of identity?
What is the nature of change?
Why is there something rather than nothing?
Is there an objective morality?
What are the limits of knowledge?
How do symbolic systems (e.g., language) represent the world?"
The bolded questions are, I think, very definitely within the realm of science these days.
The italicized questions are debatably within the realm of science.
That doesn't leave many metaphysical questions which are beyond the limits of science.
I should add that "methodological materialism" is not where science started, but where it ended up because of what it found to be true. Because of the assumed unified nature of truth, anything new we are trying to learn should be consistent with whatever we have already shown to be true. That's why God is not immune from science, for instance.