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From: gadfly@ihu1m.UUCP (Gadfly)
Newsgroups: net.religion,net.philosophy
Subject: Re: About Sir Eccles, etc. (this one is short!)
Message-ID: <226@ihu1m.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 15-Jan-85 18:07:56 EST
Article-I.D.: ihu1m.226
Posted: Tue Jan 15 18:07:56 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 16-Jan-85 05:43:50 EST
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Xref: watmath net.religion:5292 net.philosophy:1362

--
>> As the gadfly says, lack of a scientifically determined answer
>> does not mean lack of an answer. But the "vast subjective domain"
>> he described is just that: vast and subjective. The ideas and
>> thoughts therein are subject to the lack of hard-nosed
>> objectivity they stem from. The answers coming from that domain
>> are not verifyable, nor are they anything more than consistent
>> with a preconceived set of wishful thinking ideas about the
>> universe. With that in mind, they're not worth accepting.

>> Rich Rosen

Since all of objectivity rests on axioms of shared experience,
viz. "Are stars are really in the sky and not in our eyes?", the
only inherent value in objectivity is its track record.  After all,
one could dismiss all of science as mass hypnosis.  When it comes
right down to it, the only truly verifiable criterion for accepting any
idea is functionality, and that must be subjective.  People will believe
in god(s) for the same reason they believe in gravity--it works for
them.  Or they think so.

But it's not like the problems of how we know things just came up the
other day.  I can understand how most adolescents think that they
discovered sex, but why do so many young computer scientists think that
they discovered epistomology?
-- 
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