Essentially, we live in the age of the meaningful illusion:
The more scientists learn about the human brain and how it operates, the more obvious it is that being human is no big deal. We’re just animals, complex biological systems operating according to the laws of nature—from physics to biology and chemistry. Many scientists, like the late Stephen Hawking, and philosophers like Duke University professor of philosophy and neurobiology Owen Flanagan and SUNY University professor of philosophy Gregg Caruso in a recent issue of The Philosopher’s Magazine argue that we have no soul, no fixed self, and no inherent purpose. We exist simply because we exist, tiny specks on a small planet in an infinite universe, and not because a god made the Earth for us. This conception, called “naturalism,” leaves many people feeling deeply uneasy—consciously or unconsciously—and casting about for meaning.Ephrat Livni, “Feeling anxious? It’s not just you, it’s our philosophical era of neuroexistentialism” at Quartz
Livni makes the case quite clear. It’s his conclusion that doesn’t work:
Ignoring evidence isn’t going to resuscitate dated notions of god or the soul or the self or human specialness, and it won’t make life meaningful. Instead, we have to transform our anxiety, individually and societally, because at this point, as they put it, “naturalism is the only game in town.”
The reality is that naturalism is culminating in the war on math. And it’s not going to get better, it’s going to get worse. As long as naturalists are in charge.
After all, if there is no soul, self, or inherent purpose, no fixed right or wrong, there is also no math that matters. Progressive educators understand that.
Hat tip: Heather Zeiger
See also: The progressive war on science takes dead aim at math
How naturalism rots science from the head down
and
Which side will atheists choose in the war on science? They need to re-evaluate their alliance with progressivism, which is doing science no favours.
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“naturalism is the only game in town.”
This sort of triumphalism is, in my experience, a sure sign of a failing argument. That it comes from people purporting to represent science is horrific, ironic and perhaps horrifically ironic; science is the one human endeavour with the greatest collection of successful revolutions against the received wisdom of current dogma of any human activity.
This is just another way of shouting out that “The science is settled!” and sticking her fingers in her ears. It is classic loopy left progressive tactics to declare victory and run away, so I don’t expect anything else in this case either.
And since the same people endlessly project their own disorders onto everyone else, the moronically Manichean enemies of Progress in their fiction are always the same:
“Resistance is futile!” – Star Trek’s Borg.
“Resistance is useless!” – Hitch-Hiker’s Guide’s Vogons.
Their philosophers aren’t much better:
“God is dead!” – Nietzsche. (Where’s Nietzsche now, huh?)
“The end of history!” – Fukuyama. (oh, really?)
Their climate scientists are just the johnny-come-latelies but at least they follow the script:
“The science is settled!”
Meh.
No, it isn’t.
It never has been.
It never will be.
And you’re not the first generation of historically ignorant poseurs to be encumbered with more hubris than intellect. Those of us who respect the lessons of history because we’re not bound by an a priori presumption that we’re smarter than those rubes and “this time it’s different!” know that when you abandon math as being politically inconvenient your bridges won’t magically support themselves, your aircraft won’t magically fly reliably, your crops won’t magically grow.
Engineering will outlive all your pretensions, including this one.
We all – hopefully – wake up each morning and muddle through our lives the best way we can. Whether there is a god there or not we are what we are.
So what is meant by “meaningful” or “meaningless” here?
Suppose we are little puppets, playing out our tiny roles in some grand scenario dreamed up by some super-being like a god. How does that make us more “meaningful”? We had no choice in being who we are or what we are. We had no choice about when or where we came into existence. Either we were created by a God – who apparently still blames us for being what He created us to be – or we came about through naturalistic processes, in which case ‘guilt’ or ‘blame’ or ‘worth’ are for us to decide.
If you look around the world at Trump and Brexit and the interminable small wars and the failed or failing states blighted by famine or ridden by crime and corruption, it’s hard to escape the conclusion that humanity is making a right pig’s breakfast out of the whole thing. Either we get it into our heads that we are all in this together and have to work together or we won’t be around much longer or we won’t be around much longer. We need to realize that there are no guarantees. The dinosaurs dominated this world for a lot longer then we have and they are now long gone. We could just as easily be next.
If naturalism wins then mindless nature is much smarter than our top scientists. Minds from the mindless. Sounds miraculous.
In recent days, here at UD, we are seeing dismissiveness towards demonstrative warrant and the standard that to answer a demonstration you need a counter demonstration.
I suppose this type of philosophical thinking only wins when smart people give up. Just don’t give up
as to this pack of lies,
per lie #1 “The more scientists learn about the human brain and how it operates, the more obvious it is that being human is no big deal.”
If anything ever proved that we are ‘fearfully and wonderfully made’ it is the human brain:
per lie #2 “We’re just animals, complex biological systems operating according to the laws of nature—from physics to biology and chemistry.” (SIC)
First, there is no bridge ‘from physics to chemistry to biology”,,,
Second, we are not ‘just animals’ operating according to the laws of nature, but are shown to be ‘made in the image of God’ and are also empirically shown to have free will
per lie #3, “Many scientists,,, and philosophers argue that we have no soul, no fixed self, and no inherent purpose.”
First, advances in quantum biology provide empirical evidence for a transcendent component to our being, i.e. Quantum Information, that is capable of living beyond the death of our temporal, material, bodies. i.e. a ‘soul’
If fact, we have far more empirical evidence, per Near Death Experiences, that we have souls that are capable of living beyond the death of our material bodies than we have evidence that we are the product of mindless Darwinian processes.
i.e. We have far more observational evidence for the reality of souls than we do for the Darwinian claim that unguided material processes can generate functional information. Moreover, the transcendent nature of ‘immaterial’ information, which is the one thing that, (as every ID advocate intimately knows), unguided material processes cannot possibly explain the origin of, directly supports the transcendent nature of the soul:
Second, the denial of a ‘fixed self’ is insane. It is the one thing that we have absolute personal access to and is therefore the one thing that we can possibly be most certain about. i.e. “I am”, To deny ‘you’ exist, just because “Many (atheistic) scientists,,, and philosophers argue” there is no ‘fixed self’, does not make the denial of ‘fixed self’ any less insane.
Atheists have less than zero evidence that anything material is ever capable of becoming conscious. In fact, the problem is so far beyond any conceivable materialistic solution that it is commonly known to be ‘the hard problem’ of consciousness.:
Thirdly, the empirical evidence for ‘inherent purpose’ to and for our lives is multifaceted and empirically robust.
per lie #4 “We exist simply because we exist, tiny specks on a small planet in an infinite universe, and not because a god made the Earth for us.”
Evidence from our, by far, two best theories in science, General Relativity and Quantum Mechanics, as well as ‘anomalous’ evidence from the CMBR, have all converged and overturned the Copernican principle. Thus returning significance to the earth in general and humanity specifically.
Moreover, the anthropic inequality also argues very strongly that God made the earth ‘for us’.
Thus we can edit their pack of lies to read as such:
Verse:
There is a huge problem with naturalism in general, the idea that we are meaningless specs in the middle of an infinitely huge universe does not make any one person feel like we need to be in this together if we’re going to work together to survive.
That actually feels like the hubris an idiot that wants to prove their point and here’s the upside will all work together if we all believe were worthless and will all make our own worth.
Only a few people will think that
The vast majority of people will simply not see the value in themselves or others. This high minded crap that will all suddenly get along and work together because we realize that there’s no meaning in anything we do so our only job is to survive is such b******t
For many meaningful value of a human being is the only thing that stops them from harming that other human being and helping that other human being
And if naturalism is true then it is natural for that human to find a meaning interview other human beings as meaningful. Take that away, And I guarantee you the results will not be good
I’ve dealt with many bouts of depression do to the feeling of being meaningless, I do not see the worse and others when I feel that way either nor do I care it’s strips everything from you
Meaning is one of the few things they can drag you out of it
Being meaningless makes that depression stronger and gives you more reason to kill yourself or to rid yourself of the world because there’s no reason to live none whatsoever
As severesky has pointed out, Pretty much the world sucks and there is no reason to believe it’s going to get any better
Furthermore let’s point out the fact that the smartest most powerful animals on the planet are nothing more than meaningless blobs of carbon
I want to repeat the smartest and most powerful animals on the planet, that’s humans
We are the only species on this planet that as harnessed the power of the sun and has utilized it to power our homes, or kill millions of people and possibly wipe out the entire ready of all life on the planet in a single moment. Go Nuclear power
On the same token we have engineered weapons wonderful medical marvels and horrifying devices to both benefit and destroy us
We have conquered biology and we now engineer genetics
And this is not even going into the fact that we have the power of abstract thought, we can create music and other beautiful things like art, but we are also equally distructive
It boils down to if we truly are meaningless then your commentary or anybody else’s commentary is also equally meaningless and then if the neurological patterns in my brain caused me pain because of your commentary then I should respond in kind to the meaningless carbon that is causing me discomfort with equal or worse amounts of discomfort
Meaningless gives reason to end lives because they’re meaningless and if they are of no benefit then they should simply disappear.
It aggravates me that scientists argue for such meaninglessness but also provides the means for people to wipe them selves off the face of the earth because science is as good or as evil as the person doing it.
So let’s make the smartest most powerful animals on the planet feel meaningless and see what they do with their power I guarantee you it won’t be positive and in history and never has been, because often when people go to create their own meaning they generally get rid of people that don’t agree with theirs, usually by killing maming and destroying those that don’t agree. This past century has taught us that with such lovely people like Joseph Stalin, Hilter, and Mao.
Seversky: Either we get it into our heads that we are all in this together and have to work together or we won’t be around much longer or we won’t be around much longer… The dinosaurs dominated this world for a lot longer then we have and they are now long gone. We could just as easily be next.
So what? What’s the difference since there is no transcendent Grand Plan? Burning the world down and fighting about it while it burns may be a lot more fun and profitable to some folks.There’s no reason to be long sighted when being short sighted is more fun and profitable. There are lions and there are gazelles. There cannot be harmony between the two.
Implicit in your statement is that there is something about this planet that is worth saving, something worth unifying over. Where did you come by that irrational nonsense, comrade? That smacks of some kind of goofy religious idea.
“The more scientists learn about the human brain and how it operates, the more obvious it is that being human is no big deal”
This idiot should be slapped for such a moronic statement!!!!
I keep re-reading it and I keep thinking what science is he quoting or reading that makes the human brain not a big deal or being human not a big deal
The neural plasticity of the brain alone shows that it is a huge deal
We have found that cognitive therapy can be just as effective as Prozac and other forms of medications that affect the brain
Because the brain can rewire itself, This is not the say that medication is obsolete or not needed
We found out that meditation is capable of actually rewiring your brain
Ba77 quoted in the excellent peace proving this guy wrong
Where in the world does he get off thinking he can make such ridiculous statements and think that they are true!
Lol I apologize a lot of my stuff was butchered by talk text, I really need to stop using it