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nameless, Couldn't disagree more. I'm not a blind man sexually assaulting an elephant and pretending it's a coconut palm. There's an actual reality we are able to have valid knowledge of, and apply that knowledge to create technologies that function. Were reality somehow otherwise, life could not have evolved because evolution could not have chanced upon a consistent chain of best answers to the questions posed by the environment. We could not apply scientific principles to make technology for there would be no such principles.
I'm not trained in formal logic either - but, for reality to have definite characterisitics, everything that exists must be consistent with everything else that exists. If God exists - by definitiion a supernatural entity, then reality does not. Because reality exists - ergo, God does not.
But anyhow, i have a question.
Extinction – does it matter?
As a consequence of action in the course of religious, political and economic ideologies inconsistent with the scientific facts of the reality we inhabit, humankind will become extinct. But does it matter? Even if we were to strive to survive the energy crisis, climate change, over-population and environmental degradation by accepting valid knowledge of reality as the rule for the conduct of human affairs – as far as we know, we are trapped on Earth. Even the nearest stars are incredibly distant – 4.5 light years, which is to say 4.5 years at 186,000 miles per second.
Einstein stated that accelerating mass to the speed of light requires an infinite amount of energy – which we don’t have, and so the nearest stars are a lot further away than any 4.5 years. Indeed, traveling at about 50,000 miles an hour, it took Voyager over 11 years just to clear the solar system.
Thus, no matter how long the species lives – it doesn’t seem likely that we will have purposes beyond those we have here. Without the prospect of expanding into the universe extinction might just be the ‘absolute’ we are so clearly searching for in our religious, political and economic ideologies. In scientific terms, of course, there’s no reason why humankind might not live another million years, or more – but in these terms, to what end? Is it enough just to walk in the sunshine?
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