(April 29, 2014 at 3:28 pm)ns1452 Wrote: 1) Empirical studies fall short of being able to understand all of reality? How can you account for the existence of beauty and courage on only an empirical epistemology
How do you know beauty and courage "exist"? What do they have to do with "reality"?
(April 29, 2014 at 3:28 pm)ns1452 Wrote: 2) What makes empirical rationalism the sole and first criteria for understanding the world?
Well, anything else is functionally equivalent to "making stuff up". Of what use is an idea if it can't be shown to even apply to the world? If you tell me there's a such thing as karma or souls, but can't demonstrate them, why should I take them seriously? No one has ever seen a soul do anything in this world.
Sure, you can say that souls are super important because they live forever in heaven or hell after you die, but you can't demonstrate heaven or hell exist, either. If I tell you your soul will go to hell if you don't follow the five pillars of Islam, are you going to take me seriously and switch religions?
There's no reason to believe any of that stuff.