Hi Platt, Faith has many meanings that are easy to conflate, but faith in this context means belief that is not based on evidence. If there is no evidence that could ever be viewed as inconsistent with a belief, then that belief is held on faith.
You seem to say that there is no difference between religious faith and holding certain assumptions about reality and how we can best inquire about reality. I think that one huge difference between the so-called religion of scientists and that of Christians is that scientists can always tell you exactly what sort of evidence would be inconsistent with their hypotheses, which can be revised based on new experience, while for religious people, there is no evidence that could ever be viewed as contrary to their faith in certain tenets. Regards, Steve On Tue, Feb 24, 2009 at 9:48 AM, Platt Holden <[email protected]> wrote: > Hey MP, > >> However, faith precedes reason. Skepticism IMO is the failure of reason to >> accept that preconditional aspect of faith. > > Excellent point, MP. Separating faith from reason or any other intellectual > process is just plain dumb. Why? Simply because all intellectual processes > rest on underlying, faith-based assumptions. Case in the point: the > underlying assumptions of SOM: > > Faith-based metaphysical assumptions of the scientific worldview: > > Determinism--all effects emerge from prior natural causes > > Reductionism--complex phenomena can be explained by isolating simple > elements and processes > > Empiricism--reality grounded in sensory phenomena > > Materialism--matter/energy is the source of all phenomena including human > intelligence > > > Externalism--nature and its laws exists independent of human observation > > Mechanism--basic processes stem from causes that can often be formulated in > mathematical terms > > Experimentalism--models of cause and effect must be tested by repeated > measurements > > Evolutionism--continuous development is brought about by blind chance and > natural selection > > Emergentism--some phenomena occur as the result of self-organizing patterns > > Conditionalism--new discoveries may invalidate current theories > > To defend their faiths, some scientists and their acolytes are prone to > mock, demonize and marginalize competing views, using highly emotive > language and implying that all "intelligent" people must agree with them. > Thankfully there are individuals like yourself who are able to see that the > SOM emperor has no clothes. > > Regards, > Platt Moq_Discuss mailing list Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org Archives: http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ http://moq.org.uk/pipermail/moq_discuss_archive/
