Religion-Science Philosophy articles series
Many people today claim they are “reational”. Many others claim they are “atheists”. And a lot others claim they are “agnostics”. I will not address here why it is not-so-logical to be logical (see Harmonia Philosophica) or why it is invalid to be agnostic (see Why you can’t be an agnostic) or why atheism requires more faith than theism (see Religion and Science unification – Towards Religional Science). What is of interest here is to point out the great misunderstanding that covers all there three ways of thinking: the claim that people who claim to belong in any of these groups are not dogmatic, while they are more than anyone!
People today have been so accustomed in using specific axioms that they really forget that are axioms at all! So when any of these people say “Prove me that a soul exists”, they forget that the other can also respond “Prove me that only matter exists”. Our experience if full of unexplained phenomena and we must remember that materialism is a philosophical DOGMA (call it Axiom), not a proven position! Relying on it to try to be “free thinking” does nothing more than revealing how dogmatic you are. You cannot rely on ANY dogma (whether it is materialism or theism alike) in order to prove you are not dogmatic!
The worship of Logic as a dogma is also a mark of our era. People (especially those belonging in the three abovementioned groups) BELIEVE in Logic as if it was something “valid”, “objective” or “true”. However this is hardly the case. Mathematical Logic is based on a whole SET OF AXIOMS (just look http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_axioms for an indicative list)!! Selecting those axioms is a matter of intuitiuon and FAITH. Changing those axioms is a matter of FREE WILL! Logic is not set on solid foundations! Being illogical is just another way of saying “I think differently”. It is not bad or “wrong”. It is just what everyone should do in an era of scientism!
The Pythagorean Theorem is not “valid”! The Pythagoream Theorem is not “true” or “proved”! The correct way of putting it is to say that “Based on the Eucledian Axioms, the Pythagorean Theorem is proved”. Again, a set of initial axioms must be used!
Claiming the “truth” of something while forgetting that it is based on completely intuitively chosen axioms is DOGMATIC!
Claiming that you are fighting against dogmatism while being dogmatic is not only wrong, but dangerous as well…
And atheists, agnosticists and rationalists of today do just that…
That is indeed correct…
Everybody has their presuppositions. Some just don’t know they have them.