Philosophical musings on Quanta & Qualia;  Materialism & Spiritualism; Science & Religion; Pragmatism & Idealism, etc.

Nature as observed
vs
Nature as is.

Post 9. January 13, 2018

Naturalism & Supra-Naturalism

Deism : Science & Religion & Philosophy

In their philosophical worldviews, Deists tend to fall into the no-man's-land between Naturalism1 and Supernaturalism, which I’ll call Supra-Naturalism. The Science-based Naturalists constitute a small “community of reason”, as defined by Tyler & Bakker in a Skeptical Inquirer (42/1) article, Let's be SHARPs together. But that smug self-description implies that “everyone else is irrational”. So they sought a less dismissive label for their little fraternity. The article then proposes an umbrella acronym for the various versions of naturalists : SHARP, standing for Skeptics, Humanists, Atheists, Rationalists, & Positivists. In a similar manner, we could describe the disparate factions of Supernaturalists as the much larger "fellowship of Faith". Under that ecumenical epithet we find Theists, Spiritualists, Pagans, Traditionalists, & Pseudoscientists. For this post, and just for funsies, I'll use the acronym SPiRiT. Of course those lump-lists exclude many other paradigms & belief systems on the margins of the broader breakdown of ideologies, including Agnostics, Freethinkers, & Unchurched, along with multitudes of unlabeled heathens. Among those outcasts are some who identify as Deists, because they believe in both God and Science.

The Naturalists believe that the only source of reliable knowledge is the scientific method of empirical testing for all theories. But the Supernaturalists, profess little faith in the powers of unaided human reason to understand the invisible spirit world, or to know ultimate Truth. So, instead of mundane reasoning, they place their trust in “inspired” or “enlightened” sages & prophets with elite insight or divine inspiration. Woo-wary Deists on the other hand, are acutely aware of their own intuitive errors & biases2, so tend to rely on methodical reasoning to double-check their gut-feelings and snap-judgments. Once burned by beautiful BS, they are inclined to fact-check the siren-song of any beguiling ideas that might beckon, no matter how tempting. Consequently, they question any bold claims of ordinary humans to secret knowledge (e.g. Gnosticism, visions, revelations) from beyond the mundane scope of science. Yet, at the same time, they can't completely ignore their personal intuition that there's more to reality than the superficial phenomena3 of materialistic Science. Therefore, they must make allowances for non-material noumena4 that hint at a mental or spiritual aspect of reality. For example, we can infer that other people have ideas similar to our own, but we can't prove it empirically, because we can't read other minds5.

Deists typically agree with scientists that there are mundane explanations for most reports of miracles or other supernatural activity, but they still see a place for something like a noumenal mind behind the magnificent size, beautiful order, and purposeful progression of the Cosmos. So they call that unknown, and possibly unknowable, First Cause : “God”, without imputing any more specific attributes to that mysterious Creator. Because that's where all of the world's religions, and supernatural worldviews, have gone wrong, as evidenced by the thousands of incompatible god-models. Hence, by carefully treading the fine line between Science & Superstition, they can have their God and Reason too. We could categorize these philosophical acrobats as the “-unity of Reason” and of Faith. But, if that sounds pretentious, in lieu of an acronym, just call them Deists.

End of Post 9

1. Naturalism : the belief that reality is limited to material things, physical causes & natural effects; no gods or spirits pulling magical strings.

2. Intuition : it seems that Reason is actually a special case of innate holistic thought, slowed down & zoomed-in for close analysis of parts. logic.harvard.edu/EFI_Parsons_ReasonAndIntuition.pdf

Errors of Intuition : https://www.brainpickings.org/2013/10/30/daniel-kahneman-intuition/

3. Phenomena : how things appear to the five senses (e.g., sights and sounds) as con-trasted with what is apprehended by the intellect. Most experts agree that our normal experience of things is incomplete & biased.

4. Noumena : idealized concepts known via the sixth sense of Reason & imagination.

5. Read Minds : Neuroscientists have recently claimed to read minds, but that's merely a metaphor to describe the technology for mapping brain processes to behaviors. It's like observing a person eating, and inferring (guessing) that he feels hunger, without actually being able to experience the feeling of that person's urges.

Science :
pragmatic methods for discovering how to control Nature for human purposes.

Religion :
political systems for controlling people by standardizing their beliefs.

Philosophy :
theoretical approach to discerning true & false, good & evil.

Woo :
Woo is a word skeptics use as shorthand to describe pseudo-scientific and often anti-scientific ideas - ideas that are irrational and not based on evidence commensurate with the extraordinary nature of the claim.
___Skeptico