[Dragaera] agnosticism (no flame) (was, long ago: (no spoilers) The 17 [Great Weapons])

[Maximilian Wilson]

On 5/22/07, Will Frank <wmfrank at stwing.org> wrote:
>
> Also Sprach Maximilian Wilson:
>
> > > People can come to either of those philosophical positions, theism or
> > > atheism, from any number of philosophies, approaches, or reasons. Many
> > > people come to atheism through scientific reasoning, in the style of
> > > Richard Dawkins, whose rigid following of the observable evidence in
> > > the proper forms of the scientific method (which is not a
> > > philosophical position, but a way of looking at the world and drawing
> > > conclusions from data) leads him to conclude that there is no such
> > > being as a god, because if there was, there would be evidence of
> > > it. One of the principles of science is to conclude only from the
> > > data.
> > >
> >
> > This is probably a tangent, but I'm not ready to concede that the
> scientific
> > method does not imply a philosophical position, namely a confidence in
> the
> > repeatability of phenomena and that the past is a good guide to the
> > future.
>
> Well...Yyu're half-right. The scientific method is not in and of
> itself a philosophical position, but its followers do have some
> axioms, which are philosophical positions--it's built on something, in
> other words. And you're right about which ones.
>
> But those philosophical positions are not mutually exclusive with
> either theism or atheism. So it would have been more accurate to say
> that the scientific method implies no theological position, and no
> competing philosophical position in the matter of the existence of a
> god.
>

Since I agree with everything you say here, I must have been on a tangent.
:)

-Max

-- 
Be pretty if you are, be witty if you can,
But be cheerful if it kills you.

Everything in Windows is very simple, but the simplest thing is difficult.
    -Clausewitz