tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4764506766343254616.post8902742768490902993..comments2024-03-26T14:20:38.103-04:00Comments on The Thought Criminal: Answering An Old Accusation Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4764506766343254616.post-19706560383208429292017-06-05T11:14:22.619-04:002017-06-05T11:14:22.619-04:00I was running through my rudimentary understanding...I was running through my rudimentary understanding of entropy this morning (what I know about thermodynamics could be poured into a thimble with room left over), and thinking how much it agreed with the Greek notion of chaos and order (i.e., the universe returns to chaos, the natural order of the universe; or natural disorder, actually).<br /><br />For the Greeks it was a philosophical observation which they took as sound reasoning. For us, it is science, which we take on faith (have you personally tested the concepts of thermodynamics?) as true, and therefore inviolable. But like religious concepts, it is not sui generis and therefore pure of origin: entropy is a concept almost inevitable to Western science, given its basis in Western thought.<br /><br />All discussions about science and atheism and religion are ultimately just theological discussions, in the sense that you are arguing over what you believe and will defend to the death as "true." None of it is the brave skepticism its adherents think it is, otherwise you wind up with Kierkegaard's critique of Socrates, where Socratic irony dissolves everything in the universal acid of skepticism. And when everything's dissolved, you have literally nothing.<br /><br />Or chaos, I guess.Rmjhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06811456254443706479noreply@blogger.com