[Krimel]
They accept on faith that their cars and TV and computers work for
reasons. For those people, the majority in fact appealing to science
as a "reason" is not much different from claiming God made it happen.
[Arlo]
As I suggested for Mark to read, Peirce's essay "The Fixation of
Belief" illuminates this a bit. There is no doubt that in an
increasingly complex and time-exhaustive environment, people have to
accept a certain modicum of information based on the experience of
others. I've never set foot on the moon, but I accept (provisionally)
the experiences of others who have done so. I accept (provisionally)
the theories of internal combustion without attempting to prove or
disprove them myself because those theories allow me to enjoy riding
my Harley through beautiful mountain passes.
But I do think there is a good deal of difference between saying "my
Harley runs on an internal combustion engine, and I don't understand
it, but I accept it" and saying "my Harley runs because angels push
my bike". A primary difference is that should the engine stop
working, and I became sufficiently motivated to do so, the theories
of internal combustion (and mechanics, etc.) will allow me to get the
machine working again. No amount of "praying to God" will fix a broken engine.
** And, by the way, should in my effort to repair the engine I find I
was lied to, that internal combustion is a elaborate hoax perpetuated
by a group of scientists, and not why the engine works, I'd be able
to figure out what does make it work, and drop my provisional
acceptance of internal combustion.
Again, as I said to Ian earlier, there is a profound difference
between accepting a provisional premise that is always checked
against experience and accepting an absolute statement despite it
being checked against experience.
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