St. Louis CMA Retreat in 2019

[swamidass (S. Joshua Swamidass)]

God, Other Minds, and Neuroscience

From the nobel Laureate…
https://www.amazon.com/Advice-Young-Investigator-Bradford-Book/dp/0262681501

God and Other Minds : A Study of the Rational Justification of Belief in God:...

@swamidass

This recent Veritas Forum article gets it right:

http://www.veritas.org/positivism-burden-proof/

This is the central thesis of the book. Plantinga argues that although one cannot prove empirically that other minds exist , it is still rational to believe in them, and that the same is true for the existence of God. It follows from this that there must be bases of knowledge outside empirical investigation. This conclusion was anathema to the positivist, whose entire epistemology revolved around a presumption of the omnipotence of empirical investigation.

What is more, the logic is elegantly simple: We believe A despite a lack of empirical evidence ; it is rational to do so; therefore, it might also be rational to believe B despite a lack of empirical evidence. If one takes Plantinga’s goal to be restoring the viability of belief in God by dismantling the tyranny of the positivist regime, he certainly succeeded.

What you are bypassing from the get go in your quest is that we cannot even empirically demonstrate your wife has a mind. We can’t empirically demonstrate anyone has a mind but ourselves. It is still rational to believe there are other minds. Belief in other minds, then, a proper basic belief .

Starting from Plantinga’s argument comes my extension. If we can’t empirically demonstrate another human has a mind, why should not expect to empirically demonstrate the existence of a Divine Mind?

That is, of course, unless that Divine Mind chose to reveal Himself somehow to us. Perhaps He grants us knowledge of a Divine Mind a basic belief. Perhaps He miraculously gives some people awareness. Perhaps He makes use of the One Sign (the Resurrection). This returns us to the fundamental problem. Without words, without revealing, with out written revelation, or miraculous work of God, I’m not sure we can detect a Divine Mind empirically.

Books on the Resurrection

@swamidass

Do you have any evidence of your pronouncement?

Yes, I do have evidence. Here is my summary:

www.veritas.org/evidence-easter-scientists-list/

But listen to Dr. Gary Habermas talk about the minimal facts approach:

The Resurrection Argument That Changed a Generation of Scholars | Gary Habermas at UCSB

@swamidass

Dr. NT Wright takes a historian’s perspective:

http://ntwrightpage.com/2016/07/12/christian-origins-and-the-resurrection-of-jesus-the-resurrection-of-jesus-as-a-historical-problem/

The thing is that there is just a massive amount of evidence, much more than I can share briefly with you. Its almost as if an intelligence beyond our time is revealing Himself to us in history.

The Resurrection is quite a bit like evolution. We have to be careful about misidentifying our personal ignorance of evidence as lack of evidence all together. The two are not the same thing. There is a lot of evidence for evolution, just as there is a lot of evidence for the Resurrection.

This is not merely about Truth though, it is also about affections. Tell me, what do you think of Jesus? Have you had a chance to look at him yet? He is beautiful. He is good.

Patrick:

https://www.amazon.com/Mere-Christianity-C-S-Lewis/dp/0060652926

More Than A Carpenter: Josh McDowell: Amazon.com: Books

The Resurrection of the Son of God (Christian Origins and the Question of God,...

Information about the Genealogical Adam

A Genealogical Rapprochement on Adam?

Three Stories on Adam

On Human Exceptionality

More Than Just Apes

Project Nim

Of Apes and Artificial Minds: What Does It Mean To Be Human? - Dr. Joshua Swamidass