example of a child raised on a remote island who finds a satellite phone. Voices come out of the machine. The child recognizes these voices as human and is thrilled by the discovery that she has found a way to interact with other humans. Perhaps there is life outside the island!
Then the elders of the tribe (if I may embellish Flew's account, let's call them Big Chief Dawkins, Grand Pooh Bah Dennett, and Witch Doctor Pinker) scorn the child and say, "Look, when we damage the instrument, the voices stop. So they're obviously nothing more than sounds produced by the unique combination of metals and circuit boards. Forget about learning about other humans. From all the evidence we have, we are the only living creatures on earth. So go back to making sandcastles." Who are the real dummies here?
The answer is obvious. It's the ignorant "elders," who don't understand phones, or metaphor. A sat (or any other kind of) phone is designed to link two speakers. If there's no one speaking at the one end, there's no sound at the other. A phone isn't designed to produce voices if there's no one speaking.
The brain, on the other hand, has the ability to conjure voices and images and all sorts of things that don't really exist outside the brain. It's called imagination, which is a condition precedent to delusion (as well as to art and empathy and all sorts of good things.) A person who "hears" god's voice is not an authority as to the existence of god. Only rigorous research and experiment can determine the probability or improbability of such a being's existence. And so far, the only authorities for that claim are the imaginative claims other deluded people and the books they write and the churches they organize to maintain their baseless belief.
Again, in order to be up to date and informed on these matters, the books to read are:
No comments:
Post a Comment