Wednesday, April 3, 2019

Atheist or Agnostic

Atheist or Agnostic:
I just read an interview with the physicist Marcelo Gleiser. Several years ago I read one of his books, The Dancing Universe. I later included that book in the bibliography to my own philosophical book, The Bridge. Professor Gleiser has just been awarded the Templeton Prize and he was interviewed by Scientific American. The link to that interview is here: https:// www.scientificamerican.com/article/atheism-is-inconsistent-with-the-scientific-method- prizewinning-physicist-says/? utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=weekly- review&utm_content=link&utm_term=2019-03-27_featured-this- week&spMailingID=58849609&spUserID=NTM5ODMzNzM1MQS2&spJobID=1603563188&spRep ortId=MTYwMzU2MzE4OAS2
There are two interesting themes that Gleiser responds to in the interview. The first is from the title, which is the idea that atheism is inconsistent with the scientific method. The second is a warning that there is a danger of hubris among scientists, particularly those scientists who are seeking a ‘theory of everything.’ As it happens I dealt with both of these themes in my book, The Bridge. So, I want to take the opportunity to discuss them myself briefly.

Let me start with the second theme, the danger of hubris in science. I devoted a full chapter to this matter, On Science and Hubris. The risk is quite real. We are likely a very long way from anything remotely resembling a theory of everything. Gleiser talks about the boundary between what we know and what is beyond our current knowledge. I discussed this issue as well. In fact I coined a phrase by borrowing from a concept in contemporary physics. Astrophysicists today have discovered matter that can be detected but has not yet been seen or described. Similarly they have observed energy within the universe that they are unable at present to explain. They call these dark matter and dark energy respectively. I used this terminology to describe what we don’t yet know or understand dark knowledge. It is quite simply impossible to comprehend the relative balance between the body of knowledge we have acquired to date and the body of dark knowledge. And so, it is simply hubris to imagine that we are close to conquering the realm of dark knowledge.

The first theme on the other hand is, I think, misguided. Yes, it is true that we don’t understand all of the laws of the universe, nor all of the complexities of biology or the workings of the human brain. We can however, if we choose, understand the concepts of religious beliefs. We can trace the emergence of such beliefs within the historical period. We can read the religious and philosophical debates that took place historically over salient questions of religious belief. And, to a degree, we can speculate on the origins of concepts of gods and spirits that eventually developed into the various religions that exist today. If we examine all of these religious beliefs rigorously, we can safely say they are all demonstrably false. I would therefore argue that it is not hubris at all to state simply and with conviction that such beliefs are indeed false. Hence, if an atheist is one who rejects the beliefs currently and historically espoused by one and all existing religions, then that is an entirely defensible position. Now Professor Gleiser may counter that atheism is itself a creed. And that the atheist creed is guilty of hubris, since it stakes out an absolutist position which is based on the assumption that science has answered most of the important questions of the universe. I won’t argue with such a perspective, but I suspect that Professor Gleiser is arguing here against a straw man. I also recommend that he read my poem, Atheism, from my poetic drama, The Story of our People.

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