Survey of reasons to believe (Introduction)

by dhw, Wednesday, December 10, 2014, 19:20 (3636 days ago) @ David Turell

Survey: Scientific theory and/or no faith-DAVID: I wish to ask on a scale of one to ten how important each factor is in your thinking (rating of ten most important)[...] As a clarification of my intent, importance of a factor can be viewed as either positive or negative in leading to a particular belief system. Importance of a factor to an agnostic which leads him to non-belief or inability to believe is just as important as a factor that leads to belief as it has in my case. I'm simply trying to explore and perhaps quantify which points are most important in the decision-making.-Thank you for providing us with a novel approach to our great quest. I'll go through the items in turn, and try to quantify their importance in relation to my non-belief and non-disbelief, which I prefer to call open-mindedness.-1) Belief in cause and effect, requiring a first cause to explain why is there anything.
I'm a firm believer in there being a first cause, but whether that cause is mindful or mindless is the key question I cannot even begin to answer. In terms of its influence on my thinking, the score is therefore 0.-2) The Big Bang origin as an apparent creation.
I am not convinced by the BB theory, but even if it's true, the question still remains what started it off. I disbelieve in the something from nothing theory. We go back to the first question, and to 0 points.-3) Fine tuning of this universe and Earth to allow for life.
This leaves open the question of whether there might be other types of life than our own. Of course we don't know. In conjunction with other factors it has to play a role, but for me not a major one. 2.5 points.-4) Origin of life
5) The complexity of living biochemistry
6) Complexity of the genome
I believe in common descent, and so I would bracket these three together, since they all entail inexplicable complexity, the potential for which must have been present from the beginning. 10 points shared for importance.-7) The Cambrian Explosion vs. Darwinian evolution
A major problem for Darwinian gradualism, but not for my concept of an inventive, intelligent mechanism within the cell. Not to be ignored, however. 2.5 points.-8) Humans different in degree or kind
Although I accept that our level of consciousness and intelligence is far greater than that of our fellow animals, we are still animals, and I believe we evolved from animals. 0 points, but see No. 9.-9) Near to Death Episodes
I would rename this category the problem of consciousness in all its manifestations, including psychic experiences. Fundamental. 10 points.-10) Nature's very complex wonders and lifestyles 
Explicable in terms of an inventive intelligence, but where this came from goes back to the origin of life. 5 points.-There are at least two items missing from the list: 
1) there is no objective evidence of a god being present. We have a number of unsolved mysteries, and we have people with a subjective “feeling” of a presence. The many different religions could indicate a “convergent” core of truth, or a “convergent” desire to solve the insoluble, or to conquer death, or to have faith that we are not alone and that something is greater than ourselves, cares for us, will console us for our suffering etc. Non-presence = 10 points.
 
2) The sheer illogicality of the argument that human and animal intelligence cannot have evolved without design, whereas divine intelligence just somehow happens to be there. If one can believe in an inexplicable divine intelligence, one can believe in an inexplicable animal (including human) intelligence, and in inexplicable panpsychist evolution. 10 points because ultimately ALL the hypotheses require faith.-These points therefore indicate the importance of each item for my open-mindedness - not a score for or against God. However, quite astonishingly this new table brings me a score of 50. Would you believe/disbelieve it?