philosophy of science: meaning and functions (Introduction)

by David Turell , Sunday, September 23, 2018, 15:44 (2032 days ago) @ dhw

PART ONE

dhw: For the sake of brevity and coherence, I shall juxtapose some of the entries:

DAVID: Yes, who knows?! Your problem is ours. None of us 'know' if God exists. We cannot 'know'. That is where faith has to appear. Belief in Him for me is a logical conclusion. You cannot reach that result for some innate reason, which I believe is that you want absolute truth.

dhw: Of course we would all like to have “absolute truth”, and of course we can’t have it, but faith does not “have to appear”. The “innate reason” why I cannot share your logical conclusion is that it is no more and no less logical than the opposite conclusion.

I understand you cannot reach 'faith'. Logic can lead to faith for some of us.

dhw: You have ignored the context. David constantly complains that in searching for purpose, I humanize his God, and so he rejects the boredom line. (“I think Tony has offered an excellent answer and a proper description of the humanizing you persist in presenting.”) For vanity you substitute “proud” and “want the credit”. Why is being proud and wanting credit less human than being bored with isolation?

TONY quoting dhw: "The idea of a spectacle does not exclude love, and I can well believe that your God might for instance love humans who worship him, but it also allows for “selfish amusement” and indifference to suffering."

dhw: I can’t remember the context of this comment, but David is constantly telling us that we can only guess at your God’s nature through his works, and so of course the spectacle allows for this interpretation!

Spectacle for entertainment is humanizing.

TONY: Saying that he did it purely for entertainment, amusement, or as a cure for boredom are all forms of capriciousness or frivolity, literally "not having any serious purpose or value".

dhw: You quoted me as saying: “….perhaps I should not use the word “entertainment”, as people do tend to associate it with amusement”. Let me then state with all seriousness that I regard the relief of isolation and boredom as an extremely serious purpose. Indeed loneliness and lack of any kind of occupation are a huge human problem in our day and age. I can well imagine that the prospect of eternity spent in isolation with nothing to do would be
pretty unbearable. Can't you?

You have again imagined God from a human point of view: "Indeed loneliness and lack of any kind of occupation are a huge human problem in our day and age." Comparing God to us!