[LogicWings]

Thank you for your reply!

You're welcome. And just about the time I think we're going to start agreeing you say something like,

I include materialism and most forms of political correctness in the ideology bucket.

Materialism? That's one of those meaningless words. I cringe everytime I hear that word. What evidence do we have other than the 'material' world?

Back to the same thing again. How can you assert something you cannot prove exists?

[Alamo-Girl]

Thank you so much for your post!

I include materialism in the ideology bucket because ideology is a systematic body of concepts especially about human life or culture - and materialism is a theory that physical matter is the only or fundamental reality and that all being and processes and phenomena can be explained as manifestations or results of matter.

We take the side of science in spite of the patent absurdity of some of its constructs, in spite of its failure to fulfill many of its extravagant promises of health and life, in spite of the tolerance of the scientific community for unsubstantiated just-so stories, because we have a prior commitment, a commitment to materialism. It is not that the methods and institutions of science somehow compel us to accept a material explanation of the phenomenal world, but, on the contrary, that we are forced by our a priori adherence to material causes to create an apparatus of investigation and a set of concepts that produce material explanations, no matter how counterintuitive, no matter how mystifying to the uninitiated. Moreover, that materialism is absolute, for we cannot allow a Divine Foot in the door. The eminent Kant scholar Lewis Beck used to say that anyone who could believe in God could believe in anything. To appeal to an omnipotent deity is to allow that at any moment the regularities of nature may be ruptured, that miracles may happen. Harvard Genetics Professor Richard Lewontin according to The Unraveling of Scientific Materialism

Lurkers might be interested in Logophobia: Eric Voegelin on SCIENTISM for background.

How can you assert something you cannot prove exists?

Oh, but the spiritual realm does exist, LogicWings! And I am living proof. My testimony would no doubt fail to meet your standard as being objective, to which I offer Thinking Critically about the Subjective-Objective Distinction

We are having a robust discussion relating to this subject on this thread (Reason v. Religion). I think you’d enjoy the discussion, especially in the last hundred plus posts. You’ll find expert commentary from the Artificial Intelligence angle – tortoise and donh – as well as Philosophy – betty boop and cornelis.

For lurkers, the following links show scientific research that goes beyond the physical realm:

Near Death Experiences

Healing Power of Prayer

Doctors increasingly find introducing prayer helps calm patients and speeds recovery

Again, thanks for your post!