blacknad wrote:
"I am simply not sure of many things and this is what leads me to be suspect of the materialist atheist (like Dan Morgan, Richard Dawkins and Sam Harris). They simply do not have enough evidence as far as I can see for their dogmatic beliefs, and the fact that they appear to have all the zeal of a fundamentalist and non of the doubt, makes their motives for holding their views suspect."
I fear you have miscategorized me my friend. Materialist atheist? Ok I've got a 50ft boat and a Jaguar but I am hardly a materialist. Most of my worldly possessions, excluding the car would fit nicely in the boat and they don't include most of what most people spend money on. I guess I could use the books for additional ballast but what to do with the classical music CDs. <g>
"Our beliefs are founded upon some very basic assumptions that are not subject to empirical falsification. This is the whole problem with science when it makes pronouncements upon what really are metaphysical issues. It cannot effectively examine the very assumptions that bring it to interpret evidence in a particular way."
Not sure I can agree here either. Let me present the issue to you again. In a room put a devout Orthodox Jewish Rabbi, the Pope, an Anglican minister (you are English so I'm making allowances), both a Shiite and Sunni Imam, and a handful of believers in Buddhism, Hinduism, Shinto, and Animism for good effect. Oh heck lets add Tony Blair and Hillary Clinton to the mix too.
Now put a question to them ... any question. That to which they will all agree is objective. The temperature at which water freezes, the distance to the moon, the color of the sky, the depth of the Pacific Ocean, the length of a halibut.
Ask them questions about Paris Hilton, Jesus Christ, their favorite color, whether bacon tastes good. That is belief.
They are objectively and measurably different. And that is something I think you too will agree with making it universal.
"In truth, I doubt God, and I also doubt materialism."
So do I and I've little use for either. But there are more than two paths. Choose yours wisely.
