Posted by alexandra_k on July 12, 2005, at 18:03:25
In reply to Re: I wish I was three » alexandra_k, posted by pinkeye on July 12, 2005, at 13:05:54
> Believing in God is very helpful for me.. I don't really question that much if God is there or not. Believing helps, and I take it at that.
Yes. That was fairly much my point exactly. Believing helps. I hope I wasn't being too irreverant with the dad / god thing. It is just that there is a theory that I'm quite taken with that we used to see our parents as gods. Then we get a little older and realise they are fallible. But we still need our ideal. Believing helps. And so we project that ideal onto god. Thats pretty much what Freud thought anyway.
> And really, most of the difficult things science has supposed to have proven is also only belief. The evolution theory is just that - it is a theory.
It is a theory. It is a theory that handles a diversity of facts from biology chemistry and physics. Thats what makes it a scientific theory. It is a theory about how things in the world evolved. Science is the study of that objective world.
>If I could believe in evolution, I can as well believe in God.
Well... You can believe in whatever you want to really. You can believe in Santa and the tooth fairy etc etc.
>Atleast as a theory - because it helps me. And what better proof that God exists, than the fact that believing helps me live and feel better?? Isn't that the proof in itself?
Ok. If the idea helps you then it has pragmatic (utility) value. That is good. And sometimes that is what interests us.
If you are interested in mind-independent reality, if you are making a claim about what exists in the world then that is a different claim, however. The latter claim is capable of being true or false, whereas the first is assessed as being more or less helpful.
Some philosophers have a pragmatic theory of truth where they say that claims about the world are true in virtue of their utility. I would say: 'but why are they so very useful?' because they capture things the way they really are.But with respect to that thought... All we need is an example of a false but useful belief as a counter-example... I think there was a study that showed that people with depression tend to have realistic assessments of themself compared with people who aren't depressed who have an inflated sense of themself. It seems to be useful (though false) to have an inflated sense of yourself. Ok so thats not the best example, but someone might be able to think up a better one.
Creationism. The notion that God made all the species individually and placed them on the earth.
Well... Really that is a little like the hypothesis that the world doubled in size overnight. Can't be proven to be true or false. But...God would have had to have planted the fossils too... And just 'decided' to give everything a common genetic code. And just 'decided' to give the panda a funny thumb (it would do much better with an opposible thumb like us to strip bamboo). So all these facts are just seperatly decided by god and really we don't have an explanation for these phenomena.
What the theory of evolution by natural selection does is to unite these seemingly unrelated facts and provide a common explanation for them. If god gave the panda its thumb then it is suprising that the thumb is imperfect for the task the panda needs to do. If the thumb evolved then it makes sense that there can be many imperfect characteristics that are just good enough to get by. It can explain the common genetic code (there was a common anscestor). And then there is all the stuff we know from chemistry / physics with respect to carbon dating fossils so we know about how old the world is etc. And that the plates move and continents drift... And the ice age... And dinosaurs...
> You cannot go back to three - but what you can do, is now, you can keep yourself as innocent and open as if you were 3. And not let all the hurts and pains bog you down and make you feel old.
Thanks
:-)
poster:alexandra_k
thread:526522
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/psycho/20050706/msgs/526833.html