Just reading this calvinist fellow Alvin Plantinga Ph.d ...... "the most important philosopher of religion now writing."
"Theism, Atheism, and Rationality"...
origins.org
This little essay of his has me baffled, for he describes why such constructions of belief have their roots rising out of the original quiet hysteria of mans fear & helplessness of being set adrift and confronted constantly by a vast disinterested world that displays not the slightest awareness towards his well being . This Ph.d gives here a series of the most well constructed thoughts of exactly why such belief in divine " Father" is anything but the natural response to such sensation of a threatening chaotic impersonal world , originating in times where the knowledge of science and reason was scarce , and disasters natural and of his own making were a constant.
What could i possibly be missing here ? Even in his attempts to invite proof from the atheist , he proves the atheist's basic premise by his own reasoning & example ? Its somewhat humorous to me , but reading him I see so clearly why nothing could be more "natural" as part of mans' evolution , than the invention of religion. At least that's what my instinct would tell me , and also the draw of an inutitive "noetic appeal ".
And he finishes his gentle circular tautology with the defense that it isn't his (the believers) cognitive equipment that is faulty , for such cognitive faculties operating as "The Father" intended them to function , must need be functioning properly . (oh boy , that's a great proof there , thank god these fellows don't ever get Ph.d's in engineering <G>)
The essay ends not in the middle , but out on the circumference of opposites once again:
The atheist evidential objector, however, owes us an account of this notion. What does he mean when he complains that the theist without evidence displays a cognitive defect of some sort? How does he understand the notion of cognitive malfunction?
I think that Thomas Jefferson had a great answer for him
several hundred years ago ...or Asimov
To surrender to ignorance and call it God has always been
premature, and it remains premature today. |
