The answer is simply more science
canada goose outlet Uncle Eric once again goes after scientism and New Atheism
Canada Goose online Science vs. religion: comparing their canada goose factory outlet vancouver progress Canada Goose online
canada goose coats A conundrum: cats vs. (The main fault is that we haven suggested ways to replace the human needs that will be unfulfilled should religion vanish.) canada goose coats
My heart is no longer in this venture, as I already discussed scientism in another recent post, and because I working on my book and am hellishly busy. (Be warned: posting is going to decrease.) I simply take a few excerpts from Eric posts, “How several misunderstandings led Megan Hodder to faith” and canada goose outlet in canada “On not replacing one system of doctines [sic] with another”, and canada goose jacket outlet uk comment briefly. Eric quotes are indented.
canada goose uk black friday But, perhaps more important than this is the failure of many new atheists to propose alternatives to religion as a way of understanding our humanity. I, for one, am not satisfied with the claim that only science can give us true insights into the nature of humanity, human relationships, morality, politics, canada goose outlet authentic law, justice, etc. I believe the claim that there is no such thing as “free will” is as much a faith position as the claim that there is a god, and the careless assumption thatsince we are made up of molecules in motion we are as subject to the determinism of physics as rocks being eroded by wind and rain is enough, I think, to make the new atheist project completely unattractive to those, like me, who find greater scope for human creativity than this view provides. While I think that Raymond Tallis is sometimes a bit of a cowboy in the way that he addresses what he calls “neuromania”, nevertheless it seems to me that he is right to find the unacceptably impoverished notion canada goose outlet in vancouver of the human being hatched in neuroscience departments, and those disciplines held hostage by functional magnetic resonance imaging of the brain, both lacking in depth and credibility. canada goose uk black friday
canada goose coats on sale Here I play sadz violin. This comes perilously close to wish thinking: Eric simply doesn like the materialistic answers given by science because they lack and canada goose outlet online credibility and are improverished As canada goose outlet mall for there being no will, well, if he talking about dualistic free will, there certainly plenty of evidence against that, including the progressive demonstrations by neuroscientists that the mind is what the brain does, that our are often made before we conscious of them, and the lack of any credible alternative to materialism. And tell me, Uncle Eric, if human creativity does not derive from the motions of molecules, where does it come from? The truth is the truth, however unpalatable. I find the canada goose outlet store uk notion of my mortality unacceptable and dispiriting, but I going to die anyway. canada goose coats on sale
Canada Goose Outlet But the more comprehensive ideal, that shaped much education until very recently, of providing the materials out of which individuals in community could shape worthwhile and meaningful lives, has fallen on hard times. New atheists take little interest in this because, at root, canada goose outlet online uk the solution is thought to be quite simple. The answer is simply more science. For if science is the only route to the truth, then science should be an educational panacea that needs no further insight or support. The cultural products with the most continuous traditions of canada goose outlet trillium parka black value and understanding about the nature of being human, and the moral values which underlie the project of being human, are still the religions, but without scientific foundations these are one and all (with some justice, I might add)held to be surplus to requirements. One of the problems with the overwhelming success of science is that disciplines which might have extended and refined these canada goose outlet buffalo traditions are canada goose outlet new york city themselves often held captive by the tendency to overvalue the use of scientific controls. Canada Goose Outlet
Canada Goose Online As is customary with such attacks on scientism, there a failure to name those who argue that answer to everything is science. Clearly, solving human problems requires making value judgments that are subjective. To what should we aspire? How do we weigh our own well being versus that of poor people? Should we give away most of our personal canada goose outlet vancouver savings? Should we eat meat? Canada Goose Online
Canada Goose sale Now once goose outlet canada those judgments are made, the solutions can in principle be addressed by science: after all, if you have a goal, one can determine empirically how that goal is best achieved. And the claim that other disciplines (presumably the humanities) are captive by the tendency to overvalue the use of scientific controls well, it not we scientists who are holding them captive. Rather, it the increasing realization of those in social sciences and humanities that claims must be backed up with evidence. Canada Goose sale
cheap canada goose uk Finally, I reject Eric contention that most continuous traditions of value and understanding canada goose shop uk about the canada goose sale uk nature of being human, and the moral values which underlie the project of being human, are still the religions. No, it is secular canada goose premium outlet humanism, which, although interrupted by the Dark Ages, began addressing morality and the well lived life before Christianity was in existence. cheap canada goose uk
canada goose store If science and by that I mean science broadly construed: a combination of observation, testing, and repeatability is not the only route to determining the truth (and by I mean exists in the universe I want to know what is. canada goose store
It is something that I have remarked on myself, and it should concern us. Continued emphasis on scientific method as the only source of knowledge will not solve the problems of the kinds of cultural rootlessness that this describes. At least the religions or some of them have continuous traditions within which people can locate themselves and their efforts to live a full and responsible life. I believe, for many reasons, that these traditions are not adequate to the problems of today, and are based on beliefs which cannot be grounded in reality. Nevertheless, civil society depends on such traditions, though they need not be, and in myjudgement should no longer be based in the religions, but little effort has been put into creating alternative ways of placing ourselves within culture and history, and so long as science is thought to be the only source of knowledge, the void left by the decline of religious sensibility will remain.
https://www.canadagoose-jackets-online.com uk canada goose outlet As I said, nobody claims that solving all human problems requires only scientific knowledge. There must, of course, be value judgments. But once those are made, stand back and let science do its work! Are people lonely? If loneliness is deemed bad, figure out though observation and experimentation what will best alleviate that loneliness. Global warming? If we deem that a bad thing, the answers, if any, must come through science. Is the oppression of women a bad thing? Well, there are ways to figure out how to best empower them (small grants for women to start up businesses in third world countries have proven remarkably effective). uk canada goose outlet
And secular morality is far better than religion at making the value judgments needed to spur us to buy canada goose uk action. After all, left to its own devices, religion sees condom use as a more serious problem than AIDS, and the Taliban thinks that society works better when women can go to school. Maybe Eric old Anglican faith is not as pernicious as these, but do remember one of the reasons he quit the church: they were opposed to voluntary euthanasia.
Canada Goose Jackets We already have a good alternative way of placing ourselves within culture and history: it called humanism. Canada Goose Jackets
Canada Goose Coats On Sale I lost heart, and am sad for Eric. Having been smart enough to realize that religion is bunk, and that there are no gods, Eric now finds his godless universe unbearably bleak and depressing. While this hasn been enough to drive him back to God, it caused him to spend his time criticizing the heartlessness of science and the arrogance of scientists, as well as the failings of New Atheism. What I don understand, though, is why he canada goose outlet 80 off doesn seem to find succor in humanism. Why does there have to be something beyond the material world? There no evidence that there is, and so we should make the best of what we got. Better to do that than fall into a despairing nihilism, desperately craving things that can be had. Canada Goose Coats On Sale
Well, as I said elsewhere, I vigorously disagree with Eric about this particular matter (and his charge that folks like you and I are scientismists). But this is quite different than saying he is religious. (Can one be religious without believing in supernatural beings?)
It is enough, for me, to see the problem as one of lingering sentimental attachment to feelings of camaraderie and he felt during decades of life in the church. If you live like that long enough and then leave the club, it can be, perhaps, disorienting. Perhaps people in that situation aren used to finding these human comforts elsewhere and this leads to confusion.
canada goose clearance sale The point is that I think it is misleading, and a tad canada goose outlet store new york disrespectful, to describe Eric position as anti religion stance might merely be anger implying that he isn really a non believer at all, that maybe get over it or something of that sort. canada goose clearance sale
We can disagree with his misunderstanding of the relationship of science to the humanities without pretending he is religious. The cardboard characterization isn necessary.
And tell me, Uncle Eric, if human creativity does not derive from the motions of molecules, where does it come from?
Canada Goose Parka I think reactions such canada goose outlet jackets as Eric show a failure of imagination. Francis Crick called it the Astonishing Hypothesis that person mental activities are entirely due to the behavior of nerve cells, glial cells, and the atoms, ions, and molecules that make them up and influence them. Canada Goose Parka
canada goose uk shop To a religious person a world consisting solely of the interactions of low level molecules must be severely improverished, since they simply fail to appreciate and imagine that iterations upon iterations of canada goose outlet uk fake low level processes really can produce everything about human intellect and value in all its glory. canada goose uk shop
uk canada goose A failure to appreciate that is a limitation of the human, not of the science. uk canada goose
Even only of molecules when you factor in the numbers of molecules, their interaction, the external fields and forces, with the understanding of complex theory, you will get something that is canada goose womens outlet not only much bigger than you can imagine, but also totally unpredictable.
The problem for Eric way of thinking canada goose outlet in toronto is that they do not know what they do not know. Because of wisdoms canada goose jacket outlet toronto (or knowledge) they believe they have gained they think that they must know all, or most of it.
cheap Canada Goose While actually there are things that is totally canada goose outlet sale unpredictable (theoretically impossible to predict, or the time to make an accurate prediction will be infinite) in all complex systems cheap Canada Goose.
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