Now his literacy is being threatened by his piety:
I believe science is one, important, valuable and respectable mode of thinking about the whole. But there are truth questions it has not answered and cannot answer. What I found insightful about your book was your openness to this possibility. You repeat that openness in your recent posting:
"While I spend a fair amount of time thinking about the brain (as I am finishing my doctorate in neuroscience), I do not think that the utter reducibility of consciousness to matter has been established. It may be that the very concepts of mind and matter are fundamentally misleading us."
So you allow for a space where the logic of science and of materialism does not lead us toward truth, but may even mislead us about it, and lead us away from it. This is a big concession, and it undermines the certainty of your entire case. Such an argument must rest on a notion of ultimate truth that is deeper than science, beyond science. It must rest on a notion that allows for the rational legitimacy of my faith.
It's extremely clear from Sam's phrasing that he means the reducibility of consciousness to matter has not been established because we may be following a cold forensic trail. The alternative is not religion or metaphysics but a different scientific approach to understanding cognition.
In what way does this concession leave the door open to the possibility that a) a man born over 2,000 years ago was miraculously placed inside the womb of a virgin, b) he was the son of an invisible man in the sky whose nature and will is, conveniently to those who respect logic and verifiable fact, unfathomable to human minds, c) said son died for humanity's sins and was resurrected three days later, d) the founding text of his biography is true on these points but may not be true on other ones, depending upon how much they make us wince in the 21st century?
Also, I fail to see how it's permissible to trust someone whose definition of "truth" is so promiscuous:
Take, for example, the question of historical truth. You rely in your books on a lot of historical facts to buttress your empirical case. But these facts are not true – and could never be proven true – by the scientific method that is your benchmark. There are no control groups in history. There are no experiments. But there is a form of truth. Discovering that historical truth is the vocation of a historian – and it is a different truth than science, and reached by a different methodology and logic.
Spoken by a man compared after 9/11 to George Orwell. Orwell, you may remember, famously remarked that there were certain things that happened in war-ravaged Spain that happened none the less because The Daily Telegraph failed to report them.
Enough ink has been spilled — some of it on this blog — about the deadly fusion between the postmodern Left and the medieval forces of Islamic reaction. Perhaps now would be an excellent time to point out that conservatives who routinely blast moral and historical relativism succumb to exactly these vices when it suits their own interests — particularly when those interests are religious. "Don't judge me, this is my truth. You're intolerant if you call my beliefs ludicrous or hold them to the exacting empirical standards that you (and I) hold everything else." How is this different from sickly syllogisms about not stopping the practice of sati in India because it conforms to local Hindu customs, or condoning female circumcision in Africa for the same reason?
G.K. Chesterton, beloved geyser of aphorisms for the faithful right, said that a man who ceases to believe in God doesn't believe in nothing, he believes in anything. You'll hear this trotted out at feverish moments in the current culture war between atheists and theists as a last sally of condescension, as if moral superiority and wisdom were rooted in superstition. Yet as the breadth and scope of human knowledge expands, it's another Chesterton insight that one finds applying to the adherents of an antique dogma, who are becoming increasingly desperate and defensive: when a man thinks any stick will do, he reaches for a boomerang.
There is clearly a lot to know about this. I think you made various good points in features also.
Ephedra could be the the greatest fat loss product available. There is absolutely no diet pill, that has worked quite as good as Ephedra. If you want to order Ephedrine, click on the Buy Ephedrine internet site.
This amazing posting usually have a good deal of travelers and tourists. Exactly how do you market it? It then provides for a perfect extraordinary rotate around actions. We incuring issue substantial along with sizable to gift home elevators is the main point.
The when I just read a weblog, I really hope who’s doesnt disappoint me about that one. After all, I know it was my option to read, but I personally thought youd have some thing interesting to state. All I hear is often a lot of whining about something you could fix if you ever werent too busy looking for attention.
After research a few of the blog posts in your website now, and I really like your method of blogging. I bookmarked it to my bookmark website listing and will probably be checking again soon. Pls check out my web page as nicely and let me know what you think.
This is a right weblog for anybody who would like to find out about this topic. You are aware of so much its nearly not easy to argue along with you (not that I personally would want…HaHa). You actually put the latest spin on a topic thats been discussed for years. Excellent stuff, just great!
Thanks for every other wonderful article. Where else may anybody get that kind of information in such a perfect method of writing? I have a presentation next week, and I’m at the look for such info.