RE: Do we expect too much from human reason?
January 26, 2015 at 11:52 am
(This post was last modified: January 26, 2015 at 11:54 am by Whateverist.)
Yeah, as an equivocation of the two, the argument doesn't work at all. But as a criticism of a blind faith that science and reason will unlock all secrets, I think it works just fine.
Think of the kinds of questions we banter over around here all the time: determinism vs free will; cosmology; origins; purpose; values; ontology. In every case, reason is more useful than theology hands down. But often enough I hear one or the other of us opine how such and such just doesn't make sense and I think, should it? Making sense in terms of what else we know is a valid point. But assuming we know enough about the big picture to say unequivocally what is and isn't possible? Probably an over reach.
That doesn't mean I should throw out my preference for natural over supernatural answers. But what really can I say to another human being that should persuade them to adopt the same bias? Probably no more than they can offer as to why it is I should join them in acknowledging a god. Both are biases but I like to think all useful advances have depended on people who shared my outlook.
But in the end there just isn't any reason I can offer to a theist why naturalism is better. Hell, most of them accept naturalism everyday. They just like to think there's a magic genie holding the natural order together.
Think of the kinds of questions we banter over around here all the time: determinism vs free will; cosmology; origins; purpose; values; ontology. In every case, reason is more useful than theology hands down. But often enough I hear one or the other of us opine how such and such just doesn't make sense and I think, should it? Making sense in terms of what else we know is a valid point. But assuming we know enough about the big picture to say unequivocally what is and isn't possible? Probably an over reach.
That doesn't mean I should throw out my preference for natural over supernatural answers. But what really can I say to another human being that should persuade them to adopt the same bias? Probably no more than they can offer as to why it is I should join them in acknowledging a god. Both are biases but I like to think all useful advances have depended on people who shared my outlook.
But in the end there just isn't any reason I can offer to a theist why naturalism is better. Hell, most of them accept naturalism everyday. They just like to think there's a magic genie holding the natural order together.
