I’ve thought a lot about this myself. My general line of thinking is that God probably cares about all that we do because He loves us, but also that He’s provided us a Church with rules and instruction on how to make the best decisions in life, and we’re supposed to 1. Be instructed, and 2. Make our own decisions in the day-to-day things of life using a properly-formed conscience.
Technically he just said evolutionary psychology doesn’t explain it, not that there isn’t an explanation. Funnily enough I think it’s often the simplest words that sometimes need defining. When you ask how is it possible to ‘know’ something, how would you define ‘know’?
Yes, but the analysis (what is the pro here? what is the con here?) should be ultimately based in trying to follow God, whereas the analysis of an atheist, since they cannot be trying to follow what they don’t believe in, base their analysis on something else (at least at a deliberate level), whatever that something else is. I am speaking at a base, worldview level here.
Correct, but one can still be thankful for the good things in their life whether they think it’s from God, fate, destiny, karma, luck or random happenstance.
This kind of hits on the ‘kicking the can’ thing I mentioned higher up. So you might say being charitable is a ‘pro’, or ‘good’, because God would want you to be charitable. And if an atheist is charitable you might assume it’s because it makes them feel good but without any meaning beyond their own feelings.
I think it was the debate between Matt Dillahunty and Sye Ten Bruggencate where Sye asked what reason Matt has to believe his sense, and Matt replied “their continued reliability”, which I thought was nice and succinct, and something you said well also. Reason alone, much like mathematics, can reveal a lot, can direct inquiry; but we always seek to verify these things in reality. A mathematical model of the solar system is impressive, using that model to predict the location of additional undiscovered planets is strong confirmation that your reasoning and math is on the right track.
You obviously don’t work in the caring professions or have to deal with the complex reality of human experience.
Thanks for that. I’ll try and get to it later today. And yeah, Cosmos had a big impact on me likewise.
Not connected to Evo Psych but an ability to ‘know’ about the world is a requirement for survival. We know about the world because we need to react to it. Just as a flower turns towards the sun. If that ability didn’t exist then nothing would evolve and life wouldn’t have emerged.
Apart from going to mass or something else that might be a specific requirement of Catholicism, what would you do differently?
But on what basis do you assert we can make accurate or inaccurate conclusions?
If I may jump in…I’d answer that it’s because our reasoning ability works. It may not work all the time and backward steps are involved, but we can have some good level of confidence in our reasoning ability because of the results. It’s why we keep using science to learn more…because it, too, works. We see results.
Strongly recommend ‘Thinking Fast And Slow’ by Daniel Kahneman. Covers exactly what you posted:Alyosha1984:
If I may jump in…I’d answer that it’s because our reasoning ability works. It may not work all the time and backward steps are involved, but we can have some good level of confidence in our reasoning ability because of the results. It’s why we keep using science to learn more…because it, too, works. We see results.
We can’t totally use our reasoning however. That’s where our emotions come in. Emotions tend to give us quick answers but our slower reasoning ability can temper and change our decisions. Many people tend to go with the quick emotional response and not kick in their reasoning for an answer. If both steak and chicken are good for dinner, our reasoning would never decide our dinner but our emotions will often push the decision.
And Jonathon Haidt (always worth listening to/reading) compares it to a rider on an elephant. The rider makes the quick conscious decisions - maybe we should head in this direction, but it’s sometimes difficult to get the elephant to change the slow, deliberate direction that our subconscious takes us.