RE: When Faith and Science Clash
September 20, 2012 at 12:36 pm
(This post was last modified: September 20, 2012 at 12:47 pm by Simon Moon.)
(September 20, 2012 at 7:01 am)Reasonable_Jeff Wrote: If atheism is true, then your cognitive abilities have evolved with the aim of survivability....not truth.
i almost stopped reading right here.
Atheism makes NO statements on the 'truth'. Atheism is simply the response, "I don't believe you. Please provide me with demonstrable evidence and reasoned argument to support your claim", when a theist claims a god exists.
As an atheist, I am not making the truth claim that a god does not exist.
Quote:If I am driving down the road wanting to get to Orlando, FL and I see rocks on a hill near the road that spell out "Welcome to Orlando" I can either assume:
a.) the rocks were placed there by intelligent design
b.) the rocks rolled there by unguided processes and just have the appearance of design
If I assume (a) then it is rational to believe that the message spelled out by the rocks really is true since an intelligence placed them there. It is rational to believe that I really am entering Orlando.
However, if I assume (b) it is irrational to believe that the message spelled out by the rocks is true. They just happen to look like a message, but they really aren't a message. It would be irrational to believe that I really am entering Orlando.
False analogies are false.
Now I wish I did stop reading...
You'd believe if you just opened your heart" is a terrible argument for religion. It's basically saying, "If you bias yourself enough, you can convince yourself that this is true." If religion were true, people wouldn't need faith to believe it -- it would be supported by good evidence.
