However, if we can’t trust our belief-forming faculties to tell us the truth about God, why should we trust them to tell us the truth about anything
This is such a lousy argument. Seriously, “If our first wild guessed ass-grab explanation is wrong, why should we trust any explanation about anything ever?” Well, because other explanations have proof, logic, and real world application backing them up. That’s why we trust them. Arguments with proof get trusted; arguments without proof get discarded. We believe in evolution because applications of evolutionary theory lets us create evolved semiconductors via artificial selection, and every time we develop a new application it’s another reason to believe.
If you look closely, Keller’s argument doesn’t even directly address evolution. It’s a slight of hand in the wording to make you think it’s about evolution. In actuality, this is a fully general argument against using reasoning to change society’s mind about anything ever. “If we were wrong about , we can’t use reason to change our minds about .” This is basically the exact opposite of human history. I’m imagining two Roman philosophers arguing and one of them saying that Apollo’s chariot has to be the literal sun because if they were stupid enough to believe that they’re too dumb to figure out the truth anyways.
Our guessing wrong about God doesn’t prove shit. Starting from the dawn of time, humans have been wrong about pretty much everything. Fire doesn’t come from the Gods. There’s more than four elements. The Sun doesn’t revolve around the Earth. Sickness isn’t caused by bad spirits or an imbalance in the humors. The moving at the sound barrier won’t crush any material to paste. Atoms aren’t indivisible. Artificial Intelligence won’t take about a month. etc. You name it we’ve been wrong about it. Being wrong about God doesn’t disprove our ability to reason. It’s just another thing we’ve been wrong about in the long, long, long, long line of things we’ve been wrong about. And yet, we keep reasoning. And little by little, year by year, we keep using our reasoning to help humanity become less wrong.
P.S. You don’t necessarily need to read the sequences in order. I personally skipped the Quantum Physics sequence and came back to it later. If you’re interested in Evolutionary Psychology, just read the Evolution Sequence.
This is such a lousy argument. Seriously, “If our first wild guessed ass-grab explanation is wrong, why should we trust any explanation about anything ever?” Well, because other explanations have proof, logic, and real world application backing them up. That’s why we trust them. Arguments with proof get trusted; arguments without proof get discarded. We believe in evolution because applications of evolutionary theory lets us create evolved semiconductors via artificial selection, and every time we develop a new application it’s another reason to believe.
If you look closely, Keller’s argument doesn’t even directly address evolution. It’s a slight of hand in the wording to make you think it’s about evolution. In actuality, this is a fully general argument against using reasoning to change society’s mind about anything ever. “If we were wrong about , we can’t use reason to change our minds about .” This is basically the exact opposite of human history. I’m imagining two Roman philosophers arguing and one of them saying that Apollo’s chariot has to be the literal sun because if they were stupid enough to believe that they’re too dumb to figure out the truth anyways.
Our guessing wrong about God doesn’t prove shit. Starting from the dawn of time, humans have been wrong about pretty much everything. Fire doesn’t come from the Gods. There’s more than four elements. The Sun doesn’t revolve around the Earth. Sickness isn’t caused by bad spirits or an imbalance in the humors. The moving at the sound barrier won’t crush any material to paste. Atoms aren’t indivisible. Artificial Intelligence won’t take about a month. etc. You name it we’ve been wrong about it. Being wrong about God doesn’t disprove our ability to reason. It’s just another thing we’ve been wrong about in the long, long, long, long line of things we’ve been wrong about. And yet, we keep reasoning. And little by little, year by year, we keep using our reasoning to help humanity become less wrong.
P.S. You don’t necessarily need to read the sequences in order. I personally skipped the Quantum Physics sequence and came back to it later. If you’re interested in Evolutionary Psychology, just read the Evolution Sequence.