Re:Science & atheism

Science & atheism

Your understanding of materialism, as discussed in your other post, is rather muddled. Philosophical materialism has generally viewed atheism as a necessary consequence of its premises. Materialism’s atheistic implications were fully spelled out in. Baron Paul d'Holbach's La Systeme de la Nature, France, 1770. (But then implications don’t seem to be your strong suite.)

In the future, Todd, before you dissertate on a subject, perhaps you should go to Google, type in the subject, and learn a little first.

But I agree with you that, “Atheism means the belief that there is no God.” Ever consider the inherent (fundamentalist?) zeal in that statement: THERE IS NO…. Kind of like: “Thou shalt not….”

FYI, assuming you actually care, Penrose considers himself to be a realist, does not deny that he’s a Platonist, and his comment that the “universe has a purpose,” and that “it's not there just somehow by chance,” suggest he’s a deist; and certainly no atheist. And since Penrose’s view is that “We simply do not know the nature of matter and the laws that govern it to an extent that we shall need in order to understand what kind of organization it is, in the physical world, which gives rise to conscious beings,” he’d probably not consider himself to be a “materialist” since we don’t seem to know what matter actually is.

It seems you’ve not read and/or don’t fully understand Penrose. Let me try again: Penrose writes that: “Godel’s argument…argues that human insight lies beyond computable procedures [algorithms]. Penrose also notes that all the currently known physical laws are algorithmic.

I seem to bring out the worst in you Todd. Too bad, I kind of liked you, at times. Bottom line: as I’ve indicated, there’s actually only one core issue between us: Does science, require or mandate a materialistic/atheistic view (drop the “materialistic” if it troubles you) of the world? The answer: Nope. In fact, science actually implies that the universe does have a purpose, and that it is not an accident. But of course your atheism precludes you from seeing that. I tend to see atheists and religious fundamentalists in a similar light, both convinced they know more than they do, blinded by their beliefs.

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