Fact or Fiction? (General)

by dhw, Monday, April 05, 2010, 20:55 (5158 days ago) @ dhw

The child abuse scandal shows that the Catholic Church needs the fiction of its own moral authority to maintain its credibility. Here are some more possible "facts versus fiction" claims to ponder:-A consolation for the world's suffering would be a loving God, and so man has invented one.
 
We fear death, and so we invent an everlasting life for ourselves.-Unthinking, impersonal, unconscious Nature can spontaneously assemble mechanisms (life, reproduction, evolution, consciousness, the senses) so complex that the most intelligent humans can scarcely understand them and are unable to replicate them. -Our consciousness, memory, will, creative powers, imagination, emotions etc. 
can/cannot be explained entirely in terms of chemical processes. -Experts such as politicians, scientists, economists, educationalists etc. know what they're talking about, and so we can trust them. -All so-called "paranormal" experiences have a rational explanation.-We are/are not animals.-We have/do not have free will.