Where humans, in general, fail in their ability to think critically is in the area of controls. Endless cause and effect errors and wrong conclusions have resulted because of our failure to consider the many variables in a situation.
Where people in general fail in their ability to think critically or scientifically is in the area of controls. Endless cause and effect errors and wrong conclusions have resulted because of our failure to consider the many variables in a situation. Testimonials, anecdotes and biased data gathering make up the evidential backbone of pseudoscience, paranormal beliefs, religions and quackery. But testimonials and anecdotes do not a science make.
“Look, if I found a watch on the beach I would obviously know that all of its parts didn’t fly together by accident. I would know that there had to have been a watchmaker.” Response: It sure looked that way….until 1859. Then came along Charles Darwin and On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection. Over the years that followed, scientists increasingly demonstrated that God was no longer required as an explanatory factor for all of the design in nature. Instead, life on Earth turned out to be a four billion year old story of random genetic errors followed by an automatic, blind selection of the more fit and extermination of the less fit.
Even if it looks to our limited minds that the only possible answer to some current mystery regarding life or the universe is that “God must have done it”, it’s arguably bad theology to claim as much. This is because the strength of one’s faith now depends on whether or not scientists can fill this gap in our knowledge. Since science has been extremely successful over the last few centuries in replacing “God did it” answers with fruitful naturalistic explanations, the risk of one’s faith being undermined is quite high. The following are four such examples from the non-living realm.
Repeatedly, supernatural explanations for physical events (such as comets, eclipses, earthquakes, lightning, plagues, design in nature, Cambrian fossil explosion) later turned out to be scientifically explainable. Even questions surrounding the origin of our universe, its apparent fine-tuning and the origin of life are yielding to scientific investigation. As scientific knowledge continued to advance over the past 400 years, supernatural explanations for events continued to retreat and retreat. Many scientists faced with such a consistent trend have extrapolated to the conclusion that all of our earthly gods are non-existent and our holy books merely human creations.
To insist that God abruptly created all of the different major kinds of life can be tantamount to blasphemy in the minds of liberal theists. Consider: Extinctions: Over 99% of all the billions of species to have ever inhabited earth sooner or later went extinct. Also, several mass extinctions in which up to 90% of all species on the planet went extinct have been documented in the fossil record. If this is God’s purposeful handiwork, doesn’t that suggest a god that’s wasteful, inept, careless and unconcerned with the welfare of his creations?
A favorite argument for the existence of God(s) from the ancient Greeks up to 1859 was the argument from design. The incredible design of the human eye, the bird’s wing, the human brain and all the harmony in nature could not have happened by chance. Where there is design, there must be a designer. After all, what are the odds of all this design happening by chance? It’s like believing that scraps of metal could be randomly thrown together to create a 747. God was truly everywhere.
Over two thousand years ago the Roman poet and philosopher, Lucretious (99-55 BCE), expressed a surprisingly modern philosophy, one which he got from a more ancient philosopher, the Greek philosopher Epicurus (341-270 BCE).
Far too many people — mainly philosophers and psychologists — and now Antonio Damasio (of all people!) —- assume that it makes sense to think of “us” (the knowing subject) as somehow situated inside the brain. Sure, if you think of the subject (who perceives and has experiences) as located inside the brain or identical to the brain, then a mystery arises as to how the subject (the person?) interprets that input, which may or may not represent external reality. But why in the world do we have to accept this queer perspective?
Today, tens of millions of American Christians are pro-choice. For the last several decades, dozens of different Christian and Jewish groups have supported excellent contraception, emergency contraceptive pills and a woman’s right to choose. The Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice (RCRC) represents over 40 different denominations and faith groups in this country. They argue that since major religious sects in the U.S. strongly disagree among themselves on the abortion issue, this issue obviously cannot be a “struggle between the God-fearing and the Godless”, as often portrayed by the anti-choice activists.