Posted on 01/23/2014 9:19:28 AM PST by Heartlander
Why? Science was fine before methodological materialism confined it - you sound like chicken little. If methodological materialism explains human consciousness without free-will, morality, or ‘self’ - who cares?
Darwin showed that material causes are a sufficient explanation not only for physical phenomena, as Descartes and Newton had shown, but also for biological phenomena with all their seeming evidence of design and purpose. By coupling undirected, purposeless variation to the blind, uncaring process of natural selection, Darwin made theological or spiritual explanations of the life processes superfluous. Together with Marx's materialistic theory of history and society and Freud's attribution of human behavior to influences over which we have little control, Darwin's theory of evolution was a crucial plank in the platform of mechanism and materialism…Is this science or philosophy?
-Douglas Futuyma's Evolutionary Biology (1998, 3rd Ed., Sinauer Associates), p. 5
In a universe of blind physical forces and genetic replication, some people are going to get hurt, other people are going to get lucky, and you won’t find any rhyme or reason in it, nor any justice. The universe we observe has precisely the properties we should expect if there is, at bottom, no design, no purpose, no evil and no good, nothing but blind pitiless indifference.
- Richard Dawkins, River Out of Eden: A Darwinian View of LifeHow does this help science?
Looks like philosophy to me.
How will having theories that can't be tested help?
Then why did they do it?
… the naturalist believes that beneath every natural phenomenon there exists yet another natural phenomenon. If explanation by reference to an endless stack of large turtles is silly, then an explanation by reference to an endless stack of natural phenomena would be equally so. The naturalist's answer for the origin of life, therefore, is some natural phenomenon. (Which one is not particularly relevant.) When you ask them how that natural phenomenon came to be, their response boils down to: "It's natural phenomena all the way down!"
-Pete Chadwell
I understand conflating methodological naturalism with philosophical naturalism to try and smear science as being inherently atheistic.
Again - we are talking about methodological materialism which is atheistic - explain your consciousness using this ‘tool’.
You might be. I'm not. I'm talking about methodolgical naturalism that simply acknowleges that you cannot experiment on what you cannot detect or measure. It doesn't deny God exists, it just says we don't have any way to test or measure Him.
Sad - refer to post #197 once again...
Does it say something it didn’t before? I know the difference between methodological naturalism and philosophical naturalism, and you can’t convince me they are the same thing because I know better.
Well, first of all - we’ve been talking about methodological materialism...
No, I've been talking about methodoligcal naturalism.
You've been talking about philosophical naturalism, and calling it methodological naturalism.
Once again - look at post 197...
Are you trying to induce Stockholm syndrome?
Indeed, dear Heartlander. Well said!
What a beautiful analysis, dear spirited! Thank you especially for the excerpt from St. Athanasius — an outstanding, truthful commentary on the divinely constituted human condition....
THANK YOU!
So we can just go back to doing things the way the did in the 14th century. Who does that? Oh, wait....
Hmmm… Yes, I could see how someone with limited intelligence might think this as they would be unfamiliar with data verification, the peer-review process, and other tools in science. I could also see how an irrational dogmatic alarmist might state this as to scare people into thinking science would be taken over by some type of theocracy. Either way, I don’t have the time to educate the first case or the desire to debate the second. But for those with the ability to learn and who are open-minded – (meaning Betty) - here is a brief synopsis …
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