Alex’s Heresies - embracing a physical reality

Naturalism combines physicalist view of the world with the values of secular humanism. It is a very popular worldview for atheists and agnostics who seek to understand the world in physical or material terms without any supernatural beliefs.

http://www.naturalism.org is an excellent site for those who want to explore naturalism. Thomas Clark who maintains the site has assembled articles in a very accessible booklet, Encountering Naturalism. Clark introduces and promotes naturalism as a very realistic and moral view point that maintains a physical view of reality. Topics include What Do We Know?; Who Are We?; The Self and Relationships; and Naturalizing Spirituality.

I haven’t seen this booklet in Australia yet but it is available from Amazon. Highly recommended.

© 2008 Alex McCullie

Selection of interesting YouTube videos. Revisit under Links category.

Brain processing overview

Christof Koch’s webpage: Lois and Victor Troendle Professor of Cognitive and Behavioral Biology, Caltech

Christof Koch: Consciousness part1 part2 part3 part4 part5 part6 part7

Christof Koch: The Quest for Consciousness part1 part2 part3 part4 part5 part6

John Bickle on neuroscience and reductionism: part1 part2

Alex McCullie

Patricia Churchland is Professor of Philosophy University of California - webpage. Her research concentrates on the interface between philosophy and neuroscience covering areas as consciousness, free will and the self.

Philosophy in the Age of Neuroscience Presentation: part1 part2 part3 part4 part5 part6

Open questions in Neuroscience: part1 part2 part3

Beyond Belief conference: part1 part2 part3 part4

Decisions, Responsibility and the Brain: part1 part2 part3 part4 part5 part6

Interview: part1 part2 part3

Alex McCullie

I’m collecting interesting links of articles and research showing that moral decisions are strictly a human (brain) affair. Each link is dated as research findings are updated frequently in the fast-moving area of neuroscience. I’ll post this entry under Links so keep checking.

• Between a Rock and a Hard Place: Thinking about Morality - When we are in a pinch, surprising factors can affect our moral judgments, By Adina Roskies and Walter Sinnott-Armstrong (SCIAM - Mind Matters, 29 Jul 2008)
• The Moral Instinct, by Steven Pinker (NYT, 13 Jan 2008) - excellent overview article on morality from an evolutionary perspective.

Alex McCullie

Recent report from Scientific American - Mind Matters describing the effects of cognitive stress on moral decisions:

“Cognitive science and moral philosophy might seem like strange bedfellows, but in the past decade they have become partners. In a recent issue of Cognition, the Harvard University psychologist Joshua Greene and colleagues extend this trend. Their experiment utilizes conventional behavioral methods, but it was designed to test a hypothesis stemming from previous fMRI investigations into the neural bases of moral judgments… (more)”

(Between a Rock and a Hard Place: Thinking about Morality - When we are in a pinch, surprising factors can affect our moral judgments, By Adina Roskies and Walter Sinnott-Armstrong, July 29, 2008)

Also see feed from SCIAM - Mind Matters on this site (bottom right).

Alex McCullie

“The Afghan lawyer defending a journalist on death row in Kabul has been bombarded with death threats urging him to drop the case.

Islamic extremists repeatedly threatened to murder Afzal Nooristani after he agreed to defend Sayed Pervez Kambaksh in his high-profile appeal.

The 23-year-old student writer was sentenced to death for circulating an article about women’s rights. He was tried in a closed court, and denied a defence lawyer. His case has sparked worldwide protests.

In Afghanistan, conservative clerics have led rallies endorsing his conviction, while others have marched for his release. Most lawyers were too afraid to take his case… (more)”

(The Independent newspaper: Islamists threaten to murder lawyer defending Pervez, By Jerome Starkey, Friday, 1 August 2008)

Relatively unknown today baron d’Holbach, Paul-Henri Thiry, was a popular Parisian author and philosopher renowned for hosting dinner parties with intellectuals and politicians from around Europe and beyond. Educated in classics and law and having financial support from his uncle, Holbach pursued many intellectual endeavours including translating German and English scientific and philosophical works into French as well as writing polemics critical of the Roman Catholic Church.

Holbach was born in Edesheim, Germany in 1723 but spent most of his life in France where he died in 1789. Over his lifetime he authored or co-authored 50 books and over 400 articles.

Being fluent in German and English, Holbach translated German chemistry and mineralogy works into French. He also translated philosophical works from English including Hobbe’s Human Nature. Holbach contributed some 400 articles to Denis Diderot’s Encyclopédie. Diderot was a close friend and a regular guest at Holbach’s dinner parties. David Hume, Benjamin Franklin and Jean-Jacques Rousseau were also on his guest list.

Holbach advocated a strongly materialistic view of nature – consisting of matter and motion only - and was a very harsh critic of the church. He published anonymously to avoid prosecution such as attributing Christianity Unveiled (published 1767) to Nicholas Boulanger, who died in 1759. However Holbach’s major work was The System of Nature (1770), which was later summarised in Common Sense, (1772) – available from Project Gutenberg http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page

From Common Sense:

“There is a vast empire, governed by a monarch, whose strange conduct is to confound the minds of his subjects. He wishes to be known, loved, respected, obeyed; but never shows himself to his subjects, and everything conspires to render uncertain the ideas formed of his character.

The people, subjected to his power, have, of the character and laws of their invisible sovereign, such ideas only, as his ministers give them. They, however, confess that they have no idea of their master; that his ways are impenetrable; his views and nature totally incomprehensible. These ministers, likewise, disagree upon the commands which they pretend have been issued by the sovereign, whose servants they call themselves. They defame one another, and mutually treat each other as impostors and false teachers. The decrees and ordinances, they take upon themselves to promulgate, are obscure; they are enigmas, little calculated to be understood, or even divined, by the subjects, for whose instruction they were intended. The laws of the concealed monarch require interpreters; but the interpreters are always disputing upon the true manner of understanding them. Besides, they are not consistent with themselves; all they relate of their concealed prince is only a string of contradictions. They utter concerning him not a single word that does not immediately confute itself. They call him supremely good; yet many complain of his decrees. They suppose him infinitely wise; and under his administration everything appears to contradict reason. They extol his justice; and the best of his subjects are generally the least favoured. They assert, he sees everything; yet his presence avails nothing. He is, say they, the friend of order; yet throughout his dominions, all is in confusion and disorder. He makes all for himself; and the events seldom answer his designs. He foresees everything; but cannot prevent anything. He impatiently suffers offence, yet gives everyone the power of offending him. Men admire the wisdom and perfection of his works; yet his works, full of imperfection, are of short duration. He is continually doing and undoing; repairing what he has made; but is never pleased with his work. In all his undertakings, he proposes only his own glory; yet is never glorified. His only end is the happiness of his subjects; and his subjects, for the most part want necessaries. Those, whom he seems to favour are generally least satisfied with their fate; almost all appear in perpetual revolt against a master, whose greatness they never cease to admire, whose wisdom to extol, whose goodness to adore, whose justice to fear, and whose laws to reverence, though never obeyed!

This EMPIRE is the WORLD; this MONARCH GOD; his MINISTERS are the PRIESTS; his SUBJECTS MANKIND.”

 

Highlights:

• French author, encyclopaedist, philosophy during the French enlightenment
• Born in Edesheim, Germany but brought to Paris by his rich uncle and educated in the classics and then law at University of Leiden in Netherlands
• Famed for his dinner parties in his Paris home entertaining such people as Denis Diderot, David Hume, Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Benjamin Franklin. These meetings appeared to be more than the meeting of atheists and materialists with members of the clergy frequently attending.
• Contributed some 400 articles to Diderot’s Encyclopédie; also translated German works on chemistry and mineralogy as well as philosophical works from English.
• Published anonymously to avoid persecution as well as attributed his works to other authors e.g. Christianity Unveiled (1767) to Nicholas Boulanger who died in 1759.
• Three early works were The Holy Disease, A Critical History of Jesus Christ and Table of Saints
• His major work was The System of Nature (1770) where he argues that science, experience and reason explain all things in the universe and that all things must conform to the laws of physics. Hence there is no need for supernatural causes including god.
• Wrote a more concise version, Common Sense, and is available from Project Gutenberg http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page.
• Later translated Hobbes’s Human Nature to French
• Advocated a reversal of special church privileges and separation of church and state. Also saw a moral society without the need for superstition and religion.
• Considered by some to have laid the foundation for the French Revolution.

 Another atheist to consider is French priest Jean Meslier (1664-1729). He was an extreme critic of the church.

© 2008 Alex McCullie

The short answer is no, just an uneasy truce. Scientists agree to not declare the “resurrection” and other miracles as highly improbable, unsupported by evidence and contradictory to all other known physical principles. Similarly many religionists accept scientific theories (partially) and not engage in war against science, while still maintaining traditional creeds of god created all things and gave human beings everlasting souls. This is my very sceptical view of the broad “understanding”.

Science and religion seek to explain our existence and the world about us. Science uses empirically-based evidence to provide physical explanations for our world. Religions use ancient texts and interpretations by religious leaders and intellectuals to impart their vision of god’s will for us and our world. Given changes in scientific knowledge, religions may re-interpret their sacred texts to be more acceptable or simply deny science and retain their ancient explanations.

Science assumes a strictly physical reality that displays a non-designed regularity that can be understood. Science investigates the world with a bottom-up approach so it examines the parts to understand the whole - so-called reductionism. Moreover science encourages skeptical thinking by seeing all knowledge as provisional. Over the last 500 years science has proved amazingly successful at explaining our world by using this empirically-based research, disciplined testing and regular peer reviews. Many superstitions have been replaced by scientific explanations.

Religions assume that all existence has a purpose and that we, as humans, have special significance. Typically an all powerful entity exists in the non-physical reality but created all things in our physical one. Humans, unlike all other living things, exist in both worlds with non-physical souls and a physical body. Most religions use ancient texts and later interpretations to describe the world, its origins and as well as human purposes. Believers are expected to have faith - belief without evidence - that these words were written by people and inspired by god. Even though many people see some of the religious stories as metaphorical or naive inventions of earlier civilisations, conservative believers still take these stories as literal truth.

When religions talk about god and even souls there is probably no clashing with science. However when religions make pronouncements about the physical world - as they must to have any relevance - then they are on science’s patch. Scientific methods can be used to check the likelihood of religious physical claims. Not surprisingly this creates flash-points of dispute. Some obvious examples come to mind. Firstly, there is no independent physical evidence that any miracles - violations of natural laws - have occurred. Also, secondly, Evolution presents enormous metaphysical problems for most religions. All life evolved naturally; our existence came by chance; and humans are like other living things and therefore unlikely to have non-physical aspects such as souls are some of the obvious implications. Everyday, finally, neuroscience is chipping away at the sanctity of a separate mind with physical descriptions of our mental processes.

Technically religions and science could exist in parallel if religions never talked about the physical world and science continues to ignore any non-physical existence. Unfortunately, as even the religious leaders know, the physical reality affects our everyday concerns. Talking about gods, ghosts and spirits without mentioning our actual physical world is of little practical interest to anyone.

Alex McCullie

Very funny extract from Ricky Gervais’s comedy tour on YouTube

Alex McCullie

What is the difference between pantheism and panentheism?
Is Christianity a millenarian sect?
What’s Xenu got to do with scientology?
Who is Occam as in Occam’s Razor?

Isms & Ologies by Arthur Goldwag (published by Quercusis, 2007) a wonderful collection of words, definitions and, most importantly, ideas. The book covers many fields of human endeavour including religion, philosophy, history, science, foreign words and economics. I keep this beside me at all times - when reading books on people and ideas or just browsing. My latest find is Fauvism. What? Buy the book to find out for yourself.

The book is available in bookstores in Australia and also from Amazon.

Alex McCullie