_____________
LenKen: But to have faith in things like God, Satan, Santa Claus,
pixies, fairies, leprechauns, life after death, or the healing power of crystals
is just silly.
Zach: So you think it is wise to have faith in things
that, through repeated experience, have proven themselves to have a high
probability in repeating themselves again. I can buy this, I actuallyy do buy
this, it one of the cornerstones of my philosophy on life. I have a few
questions though.
Does this extend to other peoples experiences? I
mean do you have faith that Japan, assuming that you haven't been there
repeatedly, exist? If yes, why do you have this faith?
LenKen: Hmm . . . I just so happen to have a friend
who’s currently living in Japan. Or so he claims.
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Zach: Do you have faith in things because of their explanatory properties?
Do you believe the universe is made up of protons, neutrons, and electrons? Have
you ever seen one of these things? What about physical forces?
If a person has had repeated experiences with
transcendental/supernatural entities and/or forces...ie God, Satan, Fairies,
Aliens, and the like, should that person have faith in these entities/forces, or
should that person commit himself to a mental institution, because those
entities don't positively correlate with commonly perceived reality? But, how
can that person know that it is not commonly perceived, he only has his
perceptions, and the human perceptions tell him he is crazy, but the fairy
perceptions, that are just as common, to him, as the humans, tell him that
most humans are just not connected with the higher level
realities?
LenKen: But comparing belief in protons, neutrons, and
electrons with belief in Satan, Santa, and the supernatural is
comparing apples and kumquats. As Dawkins and many other scientists have
pointed out, science doesn’t rely on faith (with the possible exception of
string theory
)—it
relies on rigorous experimentation, observation, et cetera. I,
personally, tend to rely on science and pragmatism to decide what’s probably
true. Back when I was flirting with logical positivism, I used
to be overly optimistic about what could be known for certain and what
would forever remain unknown. But I have since acquired a smidgeon of
humility in the epistemology department. I think there’s a lot of
truth to the old saying: “Scratch a pragmatist and you’ll find a logical
positivist with a broken heart.” (Well, I don’t know if that’s really an
old saying, but I’m pretty sure I heard it somewhere).