Nature's wonders: land-dwelling macroorganism psychoanalysed (Introduction)

by dhw, Wednesday, August 22, 2018, 11:14 (2283 days ago) @ Balance_Maintained

dhw: However, I should add that I have learned an enormous amount from discussing the various subjects with people like yourselves, who are much more knowledgeable than I am about certain related fields. And it's been a genuine source of pleasure to find that despite all the disagreements, discussions have very rarely descended to the levels of aggressive bigotry that I so dislike. I would even go so far as to say that in some cases the disagreements have led to a very real bond of friendship.

DAVID: most humans want solutions to problematic issues. What drives science is that we want answers. Your position is a on-answer.

Presumably you mean a non-answer. Of course it is. The fact that science, philosophy, religion want and try to supply answers does not mean they’ve found them! Why should I pretend to know the answers when I don’t have them?

TONY: Oh, make no mistake, I consider you and David friends, and eagerly hop on here as often as I can to have conversations, debates, and arguments with my friends. So, thanks for not taking it as a criticism.

The feelings are mutual, and the thanks are reciprocated.

TONY: Yet, I find it hard to swallow that you are unable to make a choice. Unable and unwilling are not the same things. If you made a choice, you have to face the prospect of being wrong. The question is, what's wrong with being wrong?

That’s not the question at all! I referred a while ago to the situation of the logical ass who starved to death standing between two identical bags of hay. I cannot choose between two equally believable and unbelievable arguments, although one of them must be true. This means that in my agnosticism, I AM wrong. So as you rightly ask, what’s wrong with being wrong? Fortunately, however, I shan’t starve to death. I can wait and see, or not see, depending on whether God does or does not exist.

DAVID: I value our friendship so much. It has opened up my mind to new avenues of thought.

That was the purpose of setting up the website, and I echo both your statements to the full!