(September 9, 2011 at 4:42 pm)Rhythm Wrote: I've said this in another one of Freds threads (hell, might have been this one). It may be that faeries make cars move, but combustion is an explanation that addresses why engines operate, and even if there were no fairies, we have no reason to assume that combustion would not work. Now, if someone was arguing for fairies over combustion, how would you treat that argument?
I'm beginning to understand Freds frustration now, the combustion engine is an entirely different proposition, we understand how it functions and it generates motion. Human beings do not simply exist and function, we have our existance in concepts, ideas, abstractions etc indeed all of the things that make life worthwhile are of this order, music, poetry, art, love..without these we are not human. Perhaps these are the "fairies" you speak about? Combustion works just fine without these, humans don't. Humans could exist purely on a functional level, only interested in food, warmth, reproduction etc but what makes us truly fully human are those "faeries" of love, art, poetry, music without which we are merely machines.