I'm venturing out onto very thin ice with this one….
Watching Neil Degrasse Tyson's Cosmos (thank you Netflix) has brought up that old argument of religion vs science. Mr Degrasse Tyson spends quite a bit of time explaining the origins of religion, myth and the need for "pattern" seekers to find causality in what they observe.
Here's Cosmos #1 with Mr. Sagan.
The corresponding Cosmos episode with Mr. Degrasse Tyson is "When Knowledge Conquered Fear" which you'll need to look up on Netflix or Hulu or something which wants a subscription (well worth it IMO)
I like to flip arguments upside down and see what happens. So in that spirit, let's look at "When Fear Conquered Logic."
William of Ockham is most known for his razor. The "razor" is the logician's scale that all proofs being equal the simplest (shortest) answer is the preferred (true) answer. The method was co-opted by Scientists in that hazy 17th century soup when Science and Protestantism were emerging as separate from Catholicism (highly recommend "An Instance of the Fingerpost" by Ian Pears for an easy immersion in 17th century England)
What most people forget is that this was a proof given in the 14th century and the only thing the European Philosophers were concerned with in the Middle Ages was proof of God. The razor proves the existence of God since "Faith" is the simplest answer to anything the Devil's Advocate may think up to refute the existence of God (William was a very good Devil's Advocate). This little wiggle got William off charges of heresy in Avignon and saved him from a rather warm welcome into hell at the hands of the secular arm. Clever boy.
Got it?
What we can't prove through empirical means, through observation, through thought, a theorem, an equation or experimentation is proved through the very existence of faith- ergo - Faith proves God.
There we have it; the birth of the Ignorance=God.
Curiously enough there may be a Darwinian argument here. The desire for a "something bigger than ourselves" seems to be a Universal Human trait so it may be an evolutionary building block. We're driven to explain the inexplicable even if the only explanation is "We don't know."
That's where I would love the discussion to start.. not "Is there a God?" but "Why do humans believe in a God?" It's a much easier place to start. There must be an evolutionary advantage. It has to be a deep one since we keep killing each over over minor variations on the same premise. It can't just be "thinning the herd" we've certainly found other ways of doing that for numerous other reasons (territory, food, sex, megalomania). Is it as simple as the need for causality? Is it as simple as curiosity? Is it just that "rush" we get when an answer "feels right"? Then why do some things "ring true" and others not? I do believe that when we find a trait which is pervasive in a species history there is an Evolutionary Cause.
In my experience the Devout of different religions have one thing in common- a deep and abiding Faith.
What are the "Universals" of Faith?
Is there a link between spirituality and happiness? (Why Athiests need Spirituality)
Isn't it time we started to study what is similar instead of what is different?Watching Neil Degrasse Tyson's Cosmos (thank you Netflix) has brought up that old argument of religion vs science. Mr Degrasse Tyson spends quite a bit of time explaining the origins of religion, myth and the need for "pattern" seekers to find causality in what they observe.
Here's Cosmos #1 with Mr. Sagan.
The corresponding Cosmos episode with Mr. Degrasse Tyson is "When Knowledge Conquered Fear" which you'll need to look up on Netflix or Hulu or something which wants a subscription (well worth it IMO)
I like to flip arguments upside down and see what happens. So in that spirit, let's look at "When Fear Conquered Logic."
William of Ockham is most known for his razor. The "razor" is the logician's scale that all proofs being equal the simplest (shortest) answer is the preferred (true) answer. The method was co-opted by Scientists in that hazy 17th century soup when Science and Protestantism were emerging as separate from Catholicism (highly recommend "An Instance of the Fingerpost" by Ian Pears for an easy immersion in 17th century England)
What most people forget is that this was a proof given in the 14th century and the only thing the European Philosophers were concerned with in the Middle Ages was proof of God. The razor proves the existence of God since "Faith" is the simplest answer to anything the Devil's Advocate may think up to refute the existence of God (William was a very good Devil's Advocate). This little wiggle got William off charges of heresy in Avignon and saved him from a rather warm welcome into hell at the hands of the secular arm. Clever boy.
Amazing how the threat of burning can concentrate the mind.
Got it?
What we can't prove through empirical means, through observation, through thought, a theorem, an equation or experimentation is proved through the very existence of faith- ergo - Faith proves God.
There we have it; the birth of the Ignorance=God.
Curiously enough there may be a Darwinian argument here. The desire for a "something bigger than ourselves" seems to be a Universal Human trait so it may be an evolutionary building block. We're driven to explain the inexplicable even if the only explanation is "We don't know."
That's where I would love the discussion to start.. not "Is there a God?" but "Why do humans believe in a God?" It's a much easier place to start. There must be an evolutionary advantage. It has to be a deep one since we keep killing each over over minor variations on the same premise. It can't just be "thinning the herd" we've certainly found other ways of doing that for numerous other reasons (territory, food, sex, megalomania). Is it as simple as the need for causality? Is it as simple as curiosity? Is it just that "rush" we get when an answer "feels right"? Then why do some things "ring true" and others not? I do believe that when we find a trait which is pervasive in a species history there is an Evolutionary Cause.
In my experience the Devout of different religions have one thing in common- a deep and abiding Faith.
This image is from the Sherpa Photo Fund
(Plug: Buy a photo- help a Sherpa)
What are the "Universals" of Faith?
Is there a link between spirituality and happiness? (Why Athiests need Spirituality)
Is there a link between science and spirituality? (Hannah Arendt's The Life of the Mind or physicist Alan Lightman)
David Sloan Wilson- podcast "What if Richard Dawkins had it all wrong?"
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