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

[Will Frank]

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.

> Or to put it another way, it's obviously futile to not believe in the
> scientific method. It's another thing entirely to refuse to believe anything
> which isn't proven by the scientific method.

True.