“One surprisingly common idea is that science, in explaining some phenomenon, makes it something it isn’t or wasn’t. It tries to disclose that every thing is a ‘‘mere thing.’’ It takes the world as we know it and turns it into a mere collection of scientific objects. ‘Reductionism’ is the disparaging name for this phenomenon. Something like this view”
“And for all the talk about how Darwin’s theory is one of ‘‘red in tooth and claw,’’ it simply isn’t. Humans are designed to care about more than individual fitness.””
“[M]orality is not ‘‘something altogether new on the face of the Earth.’’ It is not an invention de novo. Homo sapiens, presumably like their extinct social ancestors, as well as certain closely related species, such as chimps and bonobos, possess instincts and emotions that are ‘‘protomoral,’’ by which I simply mean that we possess the germs, at least, of the virtues of sympathy, compassion, fidelity, and courage. There is no ‘‘skyhook" being imputed here. We didn’t create the relevant instincts and emotions. Natural selection did. We are endowed with these instincts and feelings thanks to a craning operation that began with unicellular organisms.””
“But modern science and theism”
“In science, even if experience and reason can’t yield a definitive test for some unsolved problem, the rules require trying to gain some explanatory grip by looking to the best intersubjectively confirmed theory in the vicinity, the theory with the best potential resources for making sense of the puzzling phenomena.””
T. J. Flanagan was a prominent landscape painter and educator from Northern Ireland, known for his evocative depictions of the Irish countryside. His artistic journey began in the mid-20th century, wh...
“[T]here are neural correlates for every mental state. But [...] correlations do not constitute identities. There is a perfect correlation between be a living person and having a beating heart. But a living person isn’t a beating heart, nor vice-versa.””
“[T]the almost unimaginable complexity of naturalistic explanations or explanation sketches of our kind of being reveal the beautiful depth, texture, and intricacy of our being, even if they remove whatever undeserved enchantment comes from mystifying analyses with numerous slots for the variable ‘‘and then the miracle occurred.””
“Moral knowledge is not a kind of ‘‘divine wisdom.’’ [...] We are animals. This world is a material one, and there is no justification, none whatsoever, for believing in divinities or an afterlife. Morals matter, but they can’t really be about or for the sake of what the nonnaturalist says they are about or for. Morals are not about what God thinks is good or even what God commands, nor are morals about serving God’s purposes or doing God’s will. These ideas are out there, but they are childish ideas that are epistemically unwarranted.If ethics is about anything it must be about flourishing.””