I won't take too much of your time today because I would rather not take the stage away from the main event; I am genuinely ecstatic to have come across the above YouTube video, which does an incredible duty in its elucidation of what it means to be a skeptic and an open-minded individual. The ideas so eloquently presented within the ten minute video reflect my own views perfectly.
This post will definitely be linked to directly from the front page hereafter. In case you wish to get a feel for my own thoughts on what it means to be a skeptic, follow this link.
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3 comments:
This is an interesting clip that portrays the "opposition" to skepticism as being brutally ignorant. The clip does not examine the ground of its own thinking in any way. So yeah, from the perspective of scientific thinking every assertion in the clip is true. Yes, we should not believe everything we hear. Yes, believing everything we hear is not a sign of being open-minded. But open-mindedness is not a function of scientific thinking....
I will turn to the story of the lamp. The heat generated by the heater that causes the lampshade to move is part of an event in the world. The scientific details of thermal energy are part of a language that talks about that event, and, as such, are a representation with its own notion of reality that is separate from the actual event. The phenomenon is expressed scientifically as thermal energy, but the event itself is not thermal energy. However, the scientific explanation of the moving lampshade is excellent, valuable, and useful. For me, though, heat is also the Divine gathering of Prometheus’s gift and the lampshade’s movement is a dance performed in the gift’s presence.
Now, have your good laugh.
I do not believe that by opening your mind, my account will reveal itself as true and degrade your scientific account. I also assert that my account is absolutely silly within the metaphysics of scientific thinking. So the "burden-of-proof" argument is of no value when discussing the fundamental principles of ways of thinking (i.e. what grounds thinking), it is simply a facet of scientific thinking. I know that for you the reality of the world can only reveal itself within the discursive frame of science (the language of science). I am not trying to persuade you to withdraw your fundamental disposition towards the world. I am asking you to explain why your metaphysics or your representation should the ground of viewing all reality, all the time? Metaphysically speaking, why is your "story" or "representation" about the moving lampshade ALWAYS better than mine? Why is your story real and my story delusional?
I ask this question with an openness to your answer out of curiosity and to guide and inform my own thinking. I am certainly not looking for converts.
-- in Ottwawa, keeping it real
Is Konstantine espousing atheism? Is an atheistic position consistent only within a materialist world-view? If so, I wonder if one could argue that atheism is as dogmatic as their theistic opponents.
I also wonder if one could argue that the skepticism proclaimed by Konstantine is close-minded since it does not open its mind to alternative paradigms (world-views?) of seeing our world.
Lastly, what is at the basis of our world-views? Is Konstantine's world-view and that of the theist equally hedged on faith. If so, could we not argue that all our world-views, and our respective skepticism, methods of logic and reason, all form their basis on belief?
If this is the case, then the battle for claims of truth and reality is cultural war based on competing belief systems whose truth value is ultimately determined by a power struggle.
Konstantine, following the same line of questioning of my previous comments, I ask the following question: What is Existence?
Here is a little story that responds to that question. Enjoy! -Anonymous II
In 1897, an eight-year old girl named Virginia O'Hanlon wrote to the editor of the New York's SUN:
"Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus. Papa says, 'If you see it in the SUN it's so.' Please tell me the truth: is there a Santa Claus?"
Francis Church replied:
"Virgina, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except what they see...Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give your life its highest beauty and joy..."
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