Essay: Beyond God and atheism: Why I am a 'possibilian'

by BurnTheShips 28 Replies latest social current

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  BurnTheShips

  How does this differ from the Fallacious argument from IGNORANCE?

  Please explain how it meets the definition for argument from ignorance. My feeble cognition doesn't grasp it.

  BTS
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  BurnTheShips

  The implication of this is profound. It would mean that, ultimately, we cannot trust the senses or the powers of observation that our Creator God gave us.

  But I do. What other choice do I have?

  The Creator God of fundamentalists is a tiny God. They put him in a box.

  Yet, it seems to me that the mechanistic, meaningless Creation of others is also a tiny Creation. It puts the Universe in a small box.

  I think we have partisans on both sides of the divide that have the same mindset. They cannot have a world with some mystery.

  They cannot accept a world larger than their ability to comprehend it.

  I think this essay speaks to both.

  BTS
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  tec

  I enjoyed the essay. It certainly promotes respect for other viewpoints. I am not a possibilianist, mind you. I believe as Christ believed. I believe in Him. But I do respect all viewpoints that are based on love for others.

  I also love this:

  Truth never changes, only opinions change; letting go of the old, makes way for the new. Isn’t this the lesson that nature teaches us? The world was never flat – it is us that changed. Willingness to change allows room for growth. - Gladiator

  Tammy
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  leavingwt

  Deputy Dog:

  This is the portion that I felt some folks would take issue with.

  On the other hand, I do not subscribe to any religion. Traditional religious stories can be beautiful and often crystallise hard-won wisdom - but it is hardly a challenge to poke holes in them. Religious structures are built by humans and brim with all manner of strange human claims - they often reflect cults of personality, xenophobia or mental illness. The holy books of these religions were written millennia ago by people who never had the opportunity to know about DNA, other galaxies, information theory, electricity, the big bang, the big crunch, or even other cultures, literatures or landscapes.
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  Leolaia

  How does this differ from the Fallacious argument from IGNORANCE?
  
  Exposition: An appeal to ignorance is an argument for or against a proposition on the basis of a lack of evidence against or for it. If there is positive evidence for the conclusion, then of course we have other reasons for accepting it, but a lack of evidence by itself is no evidence.

  He is not arguing for or against a proposition; he is in fact saying the opposite: that the truth value of some propositions cannot be determined by the available evidence (and yes, many "God stories" or ideas can be disconfirmed, such as YEC creationism). In other words, a third stance to these two is to be neutral towards a proposition. His ideas seem to be close to my own. Although I think "possibilianism" is a stupid-sounding term.
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  THE GLADIATOR

  Thanks Tammy.

  Terry - Your laser like mind is more than my feeble flesh and bones can assimilate.

  From the thread essay:

  As Voltaire put it, "Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is absurd."

  This about sums up where I am.

  Time allows for many possibilities but it takes more than a human life span to know all that can be known.

  (I'm off out for the evening (UK). I didn't comment on the beer thread. Actions speak louder than words!)
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  Mad Sweeney

  What's wrong with the good old "agnostic" that this guy has to coin a dopey sounding word?
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  Deputy Dog

  leavingwt

  This is the portion that I felt some folks would take issue with.

  That's a little different than:

  This article should be highly offensive to any Fundamentalist Christian.

  While I do take issue with some things in the article, and I don't agree with his worldview, I wouldn't say I'm "highly offended".

  He seems to admit he needs "faith" of some sort as opposed to "certainty" to make sence out of the world.
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  leavingwt

  Deputy Dog: I'm glad you weren't offended. Hopefully, people will read his article and gain something from it. As BTS stated above, the author wants to address those who posess 'certainty', at both ends of the spectrum.
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  Tatiana

  Very good article. I believe that anyone who claims to be 'certain' about anything in this universe displays a special kind of arrogance that I cannot fathom. And like the article states, I don't blindly believe 'anything goes' and follow any new-age or scientific theory I stumble upon, but I DO know that there are more mysteries and unknowns than we will ever be able to understand, even after we are dead.

  However, I prefer agnostic to possibilian.