Read Online Finding Truth: 5 Principles for Unmasking Atheism, Secularism, and Other God Substitutes by Nancy Pearcey - Free Book Online
Authors: Nancy Pearcey
Tags: Religión, Non-Fiction, Atheism, Defending Christianity, Faith Defense, False Gods, Finding God, Losing faith, Materialism, Richard Pearcey, Romans 1, Saving Leonardo, Secularism, Soul of Science, Total Truth
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thrashing. “Of course we laugh,” Dawkins writes. But, “Why don’t we laugh at a judge who punishes a criminal? … Doesn’t a truly scientific, mechanistic view of the nervous system make nonsense of the very idea of responsibility?” 22
In Dawkins’s mind, a person has no more freedom than a little red car.
When a young man pressed him on the issue after a public lecture, however, Dawkins admitted that he does not practice what he preaches. He does not treat the very idea of responsibility as nonsense. He does hold people responsible for their actions: “I blame people, I give people credit.”
“But don’t you see that as an inconsistency in your views?” the young man asked. Dawkins replied, “I sort of do, yes. But it is an inconsistency that we sort of have to live with, otherwise life would be intolerable .” 23
It was an astonishing admission that in practice no one can live by the naturalistic worldview that he himself promotes—that its consequences would be “intolerable.”
Einstein’s Dilemma
What we learn from these examples is that many prominent thinkers live a two-story or bipolar existence. In their professional work, they adopt a reductionistic philosophy that regards people as essentially little red cars. But when they leave their laboratories and go home for the day, they have to switch to a contrary paradigm in order to treat people justly and humanely—to avoid a life that is “intolerable.”
Even the great Albert Einstein was caught in the same dilemma. On one hand, he writes, “human beings in their thinking, feeling, and acting, are not free but are as causally bound as the stars in their motions.” Yet on the other hand, he said, “I am compelled to act as if free will existed because if I want to live in a civilized society I must act responsibly.” 24
Einstein’s phrase “as if” is a giveaway that he is talking about an irrational leap of faith. The source of the phrase is the writings of Immanuel Kant. On one hand, Kant thought science led to the conclusion that humans are elements in a vast machine operating by the laws of physics. On the other hand, he said, to salvage morality, we must act as if we were free. And to ratify our moral standards, we must act as if God existed. And because morality makes no sense unless justice prevails in the end, we must act as if there were an afterlife. Otherwise, “all moral laws are to be considered as idle dreams.”
In Kant’s view, it is impossible to know whether these theological teachings are true. But to encourage moral behavior, he said we must live as if they were true. The phrase as if signals a concept that has been moved to the upper story. 25
Living “as if” Christianity were true
WHAT WE ACCEPT “AS IF”
Freedom, God, Morality, Afterlife
----
WHAT WE KNOW
Materialism, Determinism
Ever since Kant, the phrase as if has come to signal truths that people are compelled to hold, even though they cannot account for those truths within their own worldview. They live as if Christianity were true, even though their worldview denies it. Instead of giving up their worldview in the face of contrary facts, they endure a severe mental schizophrenia.
Secular Mysticism
We still live in the shadow of Kant. In What Is Thought? , computer scientist Eric Baum argues that the mind is essentially a computer program produced by evolutionary processes; thus free will is an illusion. The logical argument is “airtight,” Baum insists. Astonishingly, he then adds, “But who really cares, for all practical purposes? It’s much more reasonable and practical for my genes to build me believing in free will, and for me to act and think as if I have free will.” It is a useful fiction.
But a useful fiction is still a fiction. And to hold it, when your own worldview denies it, is irrational. We might even call it a form of secular mysticism. Baum admits as much. “Free will is a very useful theory” for describing
In Dawkins’s mind, a person has no more freedom than a little red car.
When a young man pressed him on the issue after a public lecture, however, Dawkins admitted that he does not practice what he preaches. He does not treat the very idea of responsibility as nonsense. He does hold people responsible for their actions: “I blame people, I give people credit.”
“But don’t you see that as an inconsistency in your views?” the young man asked. Dawkins replied, “I sort of do, yes. But it is an inconsistency that we sort of have to live with, otherwise life would be intolerable .” 23
It was an astonishing admission that in practice no one can live by the naturalistic worldview that he himself promotes—that its consequences would be “intolerable.”
Einstein’s Dilemma
What we learn from these examples is that many prominent thinkers live a two-story or bipolar existence. In their professional work, they adopt a reductionistic philosophy that regards people as essentially little red cars. But when they leave their laboratories and go home for the day, they have to switch to a contrary paradigm in order to treat people justly and humanely—to avoid a life that is “intolerable.”
Even the great Albert Einstein was caught in the same dilemma. On one hand, he writes, “human beings in their thinking, feeling, and acting, are not free but are as causally bound as the stars in their motions.” Yet on the other hand, he said, “I am compelled to act as if free will existed because if I want to live in a civilized society I must act responsibly.” 24
Einstein’s phrase “as if” is a giveaway that he is talking about an irrational leap of faith. The source of the phrase is the writings of Immanuel Kant. On one hand, Kant thought science led to the conclusion that humans are elements in a vast machine operating by the laws of physics. On the other hand, he said, to salvage morality, we must act as if we were free. And to ratify our moral standards, we must act as if God existed. And because morality makes no sense unless justice prevails in the end, we must act as if there were an afterlife. Otherwise, “all moral laws are to be considered as idle dreams.”
In Kant’s view, it is impossible to know whether these theological teachings are true. But to encourage moral behavior, he said we must live as if they were true. The phrase as if signals a concept that has been moved to the upper story. 25
Living “as if” Christianity were true
WHAT WE ACCEPT “AS IF”
Freedom, God, Morality, Afterlife
----
WHAT WE KNOW
Materialism, Determinism
Ever since Kant, the phrase as if has come to signal truths that people are compelled to hold, even though they cannot account for those truths within their own worldview. They live as if Christianity were true, even though their worldview denies it. Instead of giving up their worldview in the face of contrary facts, they endure a severe mental schizophrenia.
Secular Mysticism
We still live in the shadow of Kant. In What Is Thought? , computer scientist Eric Baum argues that the mind is essentially a computer program produced by evolutionary processes; thus free will is an illusion. The logical argument is “airtight,” Baum insists. Astonishingly, he then adds, “But who really cares, for all practical purposes? It’s much more reasonable and practical for my genes to build me believing in free will, and for me to act and think as if I have free will.” It is a useful fiction.
But a useful fiction is still a fiction. And to hold it, when your own worldview denies it, is irrational. We might even call it a form of secular mysticism. Baum admits as much. “Free will is a very useful theory” for describing
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