In his post, Harris riled that The New Yorker wrote a profile story about Eagleman who could have made some comments against atheism. "While I admire much of what Eagleman has to say, I wrote that his espousal of 'possibilianism,' in lieu of atheism, was intellectually dishonest," said Harris.
I presume, you are wondering what 'possiblianism' means. It's also a new term to me and I can't find it in the dictionary. Scientists often coin their own words like neoevolutionist Richard Dawkins' "meme", which the Wikipedia says refers to "an idea, behavior or style that spreads from person to person within a culture"
Meme, the way I understand it, is like a copying machine of culture handed down from generation to generation. Now, "possibiliniasm," as I am trying to understand it from Harris, is taken from the word possibility tagged with "ism" to make it a doctrine or theory. The possible antonym could be "certaintism" or something like it.
We will leave the debate to them but I think I owe it to the followers of this blog to explain that Harris was piqued by Eagleman's accusation that Dawkins and some other atheists among scientists peddle "false certainty." I can easily relate to this because I also feel that oftentimes many scientists take the high road of certitude.
As I often said in my previous postings that, although I relished it during my college days, I have lost the appetite for debates, having seen the futility of it all. I just don't see the purpose of debates, particularly on religion and science, if not to display our intellectual prowess. Logic can only be as good as the premises or facts that are available to us.
You don't have to be a scientist or a doctor of philosophy to understand that science has barely scratched the frontiers of outer space, much less our inner space or our being, to claim that we have all the facts to prove or disprove that there is God. Science is just like a baby in a process of discovering the wonders around him.
Having said that, I would rather like to see science work side by side with religion to make this world a better place to live in, instead of making it as a tool to advocate the abolition of religion as some scientists are doing now. Religion, organized religion in particular, has its downside. But then science has its own.
Scientists like Dawkins and Harris view religion as a threat to this world because it breeds fanaticism that resulted in suicide bombings. In the same breath, it could be said that science has posed its own danger to mankind for ushering in industrialization that resulted in global warming that could make humankind instinct.
While writing this article, I tried to squeeze time in-between to read science articles to guard against making wrong assumptions and came across Dawkins's essay "Is Science Religion?" which he read before the American Humanist Association and which was said to have been published by the Humanist magazine in 1997.
In his essay, he advocated the teaching of science in schools and to encourage children "to reflect upon deep questions of existence, to invite them to rise above the humdrum preoccupations of ordinary life and think sub-specie aeternitatis (Wikipedia says it is Latin for "under the aspect of eternity").
I find Dawkins to be a very good writer who can push forceful arguments but I really wonder if teaching more science to school children could make all the kids rational adults. I find parallelism between this idea and Marxism's that we can overhaul man's nature to create a classless society.
I just don't believe in this premise. Much as we would like to, we cannot all be Dawkinses and Harrises. People are never born equal, there will always be those who will be born intelligent and those who will be born with the lack of it. Why is it so? We cannot turn either to science or religion to answer this question.
The reality is that this world has never been ruled by reason. It will not come to pass that, even if all of us become atheists, reason will prevail. The problem of this world is not religion but our arrogance and selfishness that makes people and nations quarrel among themselves. Although civilization has brought us to the digital age, we have never freed ourselves from the bondage of our pride.
The only way we can make this world a better place to live in is for us to respect each other, whether one is an atheist or a man of faith, an intellectual or not. Until science discovers all the mysteries of this universe, human logic will not have all the facts to know the "absolute truth," whatever that would mean.
Please visit my other blog Fun in Life hyperlink http://www.salt-funstories.blogspot.com
smartautowarranty.com is available across the United States.
SimpleTuition is the smart way to choose student loans. We are dedicated to helping students and their families through the confusing education loan process by providing innovative and effective tools, resources, and most importantly, choices that help students and families make the best choice for them. This offer is available only in the United States.
Snap Dollars is available only in the US and Canada
No comments:
Post a Comment