I came across this nugget at http://www.agnosticsinternational.org/forum/portal.php
and wondered what you all would think of it. For myself, I agree and think it is a useful point to make. I don't think it takes anything away from human reason to think about the limits of its applicability. I'll go on admiring the many achievements of human reason. I just won't think it is a net which can catch all fish.
This fellow (if it is a fellow) who calls himself thoughtage has started his own forums. http://thoughtage.com/threads.cgi?1&1&3&1 Its design is pretty unusual and I suspect it is fairly new venture. He has modeled it after an e-zine. So that anyone can read anything but joining is only by invitation. Of course one can also apply. As I understand it, those who are accepted can 'publish' what they like with over site coming from the 'editor' who made them a member to begin with. You as a member would have control of what responses you'd allow to post. A person can also be invited or apply to become an editor. At that point, you could admit others to join whose writings you'd like to see published.
I could imagine our own Pickup_Shonuff would do well in a setting like this.
and wondered what you all would think of it. For myself, I agree and think it is a useful point to make. I don't think it takes anything away from human reason to think about the limits of its applicability. I'll go on admiring the many achievements of human reason. I just won't think it is a net which can catch all fish.
Thoughtage Wrote:Ayn Marx Wrote:Logic and reason a 'matter of faith'? C'mon, that's a wild stretch of the imagination.
Let's start with the easy stuff.
It's proven beyond doubt that holy books have brought comfort and meaning to billions of people over thousands of years. So holy books have convincingly demonstrated their usefulness in some regards.
However, it doesn't follow that because holy books are good for some things in human life, they are therefore automatically qualified to answer the very biggest most fundamental questions about all reality. It's a HUGE leap from "provides comfort" to "answers biggest questions", right?
If a holy book believer wishes for us to make that huge leap with them, we will require them to provide very strong evidence for such an enormous assertion of ability.
That part's easy, right? Ok, now let's apply the very same logic to the qualifications of human reason.
It is proven beyond all doubt that human reason is very useful for very many tasks. But it doesn't automatically follow that human reason is therefore qualified to address and answer the very biggest and most fundamental questions about all of reality.
If we are to make that huge leap, somebody needs to provide very strong evidence for such an enormous assertion of ability.
What we usually see is that those who challenge religious authorities are rarely willing to defend the qualifications of their own chosen authority, human reason. It usually doesn't occur to them that such a defense is required. That's typically because they sincerely take those qualifications to be an obvious given, even though the existence of human reason's ability to address and answer the very biggest and most fundamental questions is not yet proven. That is...
They are people of faith. Most often an unexamined faith. That faith is very common and understandable in human terms, but it's still faith.
See? No imagination needed. All that's required is intellectual honesty, a willingness to challenge all chosen authorities in an even handed manner.
This fellow (if it is a fellow) who calls himself thoughtage has started his own forums. http://thoughtage.com/threads.cgi?1&1&3&1 Its design is pretty unusual and I suspect it is fairly new venture. He has modeled it after an e-zine. So that anyone can read anything but joining is only by invitation. Of course one can also apply. As I understand it, those who are accepted can 'publish' what they like with over site coming from the 'editor' who made them a member to begin with. You as a member would have control of what responses you'd allow to post. A person can also be invited or apply to become an editor. At that point, you could admit others to join whose writings you'd like to see published.
I could imagine our own Pickup_Shonuff would do well in a setting like this.
