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Old 09-21-2009, 11:57 AM   #97
peter12
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Right, natural selection can't be the basis of a world view, so how could people be basing their world view on natural selection? Maybe a concrete example?

Natural selection is just a physical reality; it can't compete with philosophy any more than gravity or geology does... it doesn't try to.
Well, after reading The Selfish Gene a few times in my undergrad, it certainly sounds like the basis of a philosophy on how knowledge is obtained, what knowledge is, and why humanity exists.

Liberalism certainly impacted Darwin's interpretation of his data and further served to bolster theoretical interpretations of liberalism, see Herbert Spencer or Steven Pinker.


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Maybe a more concrete example here might help. I don't think you are saying that the gods actually impart revelation or provide the path to truth, more that the creation of gods and religions and all the trappings by the human mind facilitates... what? The search for "truth" and "meaning"?

What is truth? What is meaning? Just ideas, thoughts, thoughts trying to analyze other thoughts.
I'm not sure what the gods do. I really don't think they do anything, but I do find it interesting that many, many people read religious texts not just searching for truth, but searching for themselves. Is religious philosophy just trappings for the means to discover material and naturalistic truths (Creation myths etc...)? I personally think it's more like the ultimate human story where we sort out the most important questions about politics, ethics, morality etc...


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Tell that to your surgeon next time you need a life saving coronary bypass.
I wonder how people thought about death before coronary bypasses?
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