As an atheist, I can honestly answer that the particular physical phenomena which we refer to as “thought” are empirically shown to produce results which I find preferable.
While it is true that this does not eliminate the possibility that my thoughts mislead me, I do not see how theism can honestly claim superiority on this issue. Even if thought is the product of design, how can it be trusted? It is thought, itself, which leads theologians to the conclusions that God is intelligent and benevolent, therefore one would have to first hold the axiomatic position that thought is trustworthy prior to establishing that thought was intentionally designed to be trustworthy by God.
On both theism and atheism, we must first have an axiomatic trust in thought before we can use thought to explore a subject. The problem of hard solipsism is not adequately resolved on either view.
More twisted logic from CSLewis… meh
If his thought here were right we’d expect to see some difference between believers and non-believers that worked in the favor of belief, however, this does not happen. It seems to me that a vast majority of believers use their religion so they don’t have to think.
All text for this post is in the embedded image.
As an atheist, I can honestly answer that the particular physical phenomena which we refer to as “thought” are empirically shown to produce results which I find preferable.
While it is true that this does not eliminate the possibility that my thoughts mislead me, I do not see how theism can honestly claim superiority on this issue. Even if thought is the product of design, how can it be trusted? It is thought, itself, which leads theologians to the conclusions that God is intelligent and benevolent, therefore one would have to first hold the axiomatic position that thought is trustworthy prior to establishing that thought was intentionally designed to be trustworthy by God.
On both theism and atheism, we must first have an axiomatic trust in thought before we can use thought to explore a subject. The problem of hard solipsism is not adequately resolved on either view.
LikeLike
What does he mean when he asks the question, how can we trust our own thinking?
LikeLike
More twisted logic from CSLewis… meh
If his thought here were right we’d expect to see some difference between believers and non-believers that worked in the favor of belief, however, this does not happen. It seems to me that a vast majority of believers use their religion so they don’t have to think.
LikeLike