Posts Tagged ‘epistemology’
Fact and Faith
There seems to me to be a forced division between science and faith based systems of thought. I think there is a lot more overlap than each camp’s fundamentalists will grant. Each side wants to replace the other’s term with “Fiction”. But the truth is that theories require faith, even proved ones; and faith requires reason, especially real faith.
But there is a truly magical (and very real) place where these two elements, Fact and Faith come together, hand in hand almost, and demand that we give them equal portions, like siblings requiring the equal division of a packet of candy.
It is only in the realm of inter-personal relationships where fact matters as much as faith.
The Plurality of Persons
Martin Heidegger said “Philosophizing is to ask the question ‘why are their beings instead of nothing?’”
Signs for Sale – Daniel 3
“What the philosophers say about reality is often as deceptive as when you see a sign in a second-hand store that reads: Pressing Done Here. If you went in with your clothes to have them pressed you would be fooled; the sign is for sale.” Søren Kierkegaard in “Either/Or”
The Decent of Man
There is nothing benign about secularist atheism.
Dawkins says, “We can give up belief in God while not losing touch with a treasured heritage.” (The God Delusion)
Really? Now wouldn’t that be lovely?
Does Dawkins propose any examples of this actually happening?
Darwin says: “With savages the weak in body and mind are soon eliminated. We civilized, on the other hand, do our utmost to check the process of elimination. We build asylums for the imbecile; the maimed and the sick. Thus the weak members of civilized societies propagate their kind. No one who has attended to the breeding of domestic animals will doubt that this must be highly injurious to the race of man. Hardly anyone is so ignorant as to allow his worst animals to breed.” (The Decent of Man – 1871)
Paul Pot: “Since he is of no use anymore, there is no gain if he lives and no loss if he dies.” “Look at me now. Am I a savage person? My conscience is clear.”
Every ancient national story is one of conquer and rule. Every mythology is one of powerful gods cheating and revenging each other like kindergarten kids.
Then I read Joshua 9, the first account of a national conscience, a treasured heritage if ever there was one. “We have given them our oath by the LORD, the God of Israel, and we cannot touch them now.”
Give up belief in God and you give up all your treasured heritage, eventually you give up your very self.
I do Believe
I was watching Michael Shermer (publisher of Skeptic Magazine) on TED speak about the nature of belief. That humans have evolved to look for patterns; which is why we tend to believe things.
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Bad Luck or Providence – Daniel 2
Like poor Frodo Baggins, Daniel first sees the destiny of humanity approach through other people’s dreams, then he has a dream of his own, and then he sees it coming “with his waking eyes“. At the height of these visions all thought of food and drink will leave him, as his visions terrify him.
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Wait a minute… Daniel No. 1
I sometimes have the question asked of me, “where was God when the Tsunami happened in South East Asia?”
What is meant by that question is this, “why didn’t God do something to prevent it? He is God after all.”
I think it’s a very valid question, so valid that one way of answering it is this: Would you have even wondered about the whereabouts of God if the tsunami had not happened?
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Holy, Holy… Wow
God has dedicated Himself to His Worship. That is what He is Holy for.
Which is why He elevates His Word above His Name, when necessary. Ps 138:2 (the KJV get’s it right here as RT Kendall points out).
I’d put it this way, God has devoted Himself entirely to the cause of gathering and receiving for Himself all Praise, Honor, Glory and Worship.
Which is why every knee will bow and every tongue will confess and also why the Universe is so big, so that it may with some measure of success “declare the praises of God.”
This may seem to you a trifle irrelevant or even a little arrogant on God’s behalf. Well think about if with me for a while. Why His Word above His Name? Surely His name is the object of His worship, yes but His Word is the means of His worship. His Word is the exponential factor…
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Core Contradictions
When I am speaking with an agnostic or an honest atheist about cosmoview there are a few usual points we tend to reach. I’d like to speak about one: Contradiction.
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Does it matter? – 4 of 4
“Does it Matter?” is not a philosophical question, because there is a lot that is not matter and which is also vitally important.
‘Matter’ comes from two separate sources: ‘materia’ which means ‘substance’ in Latin, and ‘mater’ which means mother. But we use it almost exclusively to mean ‘substance’, so influenced we are by the rationalists. When we say, “it doesn’t matter,” we mean that it has no material substance, therefore, we conclude, no value. But there is much that does not matter, in the material sense, but is vitally important. Relationships have no matter at all, there is no human who could point to a direct sensory experience with a relationship. Relationships have no matter, and yet the whole universe of matter is relational.
One could point to a meal made with love, a very sensory experience. Or a passionate kiss, a very sensual experience. But those things are the result of relationship, they are not relationships themselves.
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