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	<title>Comments on: Naturalism’s Touchstone Proposition</title>
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	<link>http://atheology.com/2007/08/06/naturalisms-touchstone-proposition/</link>
	<description>n. against God or gods, anti-theology, the defense of naturalism</description>
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		<title>By: Your Daughter</title>
		<link>http://atheology.com/2007/08/06/naturalisms-touchstone-proposition/comment-page-1/#comment-152</link>
		<dc:creator>Your Daughter</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Wed, 19 Sep 2007 21:04:19 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://atheology.com/2007/08/06/naturalisms-touchstone-proposition/#comment-152</guid>
		<description>Thanks. Your argument makes more sense to me now.</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Thanks. Your argument makes more sense to me now.</p>
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		<title>By: Rastaban</title>
		<link>http://atheology.com/2007/08/06/naturalisms-touchstone-proposition/comment-page-1/#comment-153</link>
		<dc:creator>Rastaban</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Mon, 17 Sep 2007 19:44:50 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://atheology.com/2007/08/06/naturalisms-touchstone-proposition/#comment-153</guid>
		<description>Good question on what is definitely a very confusing subject. This is my answer (for now). First, I&#039;ve studied too much history to wager against scientists coming up (eventually) with useful deterministic explanations for quantum behavior. Still, that leaves open the question of whether existence is inherently random at &lt;em&gt;some&lt;/em&gt; basic level.

The question &quot;Is existence truly random at [whatever] level?&quot; carries with it the assumption that knowledge reveals (or can reveal) the inherent nature of physical reality. It seems to me it never can. Whatever formulations of thought our brain discovers to be most useful for predicting the behavior of things, we deem &quot;true&quot; -- until we find a different formulation that is more useful. That&#039;s the only kind of &quot;truth&quot; human knowledge ever unveils about the world outside of us.

From an evolutionary perspective, what an organism &quot;cares about&quot; is predicting how things in the world will behave, so that it can make good decisions for its survival. It makes sense for a brain system to evolve which invents and remembers knowledge based on the usefulness of that knowledge for predicting activity in the organism&#039;s environment. It does &lt;em&gt;not&lt;/em&gt; make sense for a brain system to evolve which is geared for determining the &quot;inherent nature&quot; of physical reality -- and it seems to me that our human brain-system is not geared that way and is incapable of that kind of knowing.

(Still, I think we can determine what the inherent nature of the world is &lt;em&gt;not&lt;/em&gt;. I think we can determine, reasonably well, that the physical world is not mental in essence. It is not of the same stuff as knowledge.)

But back to your question. Right now we are unable to predict behavior at the quantum level. From that nothing else follows. It seems to me that when we say that something is &quot;random&quot;, all it means is that we are unable to predict its behavior in a useful way. Saying something is &quot;random&quot; is all about &lt;em&gt;us&lt;/em&gt; and how useful our state of knowledge is. It doesn&#039;t tell us anything about the fundamental nature of the physical world itself. Nothing ever will.</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Good question on what is definitely a very confusing subject. This is my answer (for now). First, I&#8217;ve studied too much history to wager against scientists coming up (eventually) with useful deterministic explanations for quantum behavior. Still, that leaves open the question of whether existence is inherently random at <em>some</em> basic level.</p>
<p>The question &#8220;Is existence truly random at [whatever] level?&#8221; carries with it the assumption that knowledge reveals (or can reveal) the inherent nature of physical reality. It seems to me it never can. Whatever formulations of thought our brain discovers to be most useful for predicting the behavior of things, we deem &#8220;true&#8221; &#8212; until we find a different formulation that is more useful. That&#8217;s the only kind of &#8220;truth&#8221; human knowledge ever unveils about the world outside of us.</p>
<p>From an evolutionary perspective, what an organism &#8220;cares about&#8221; is predicting how things in the world will behave, so that it can make good decisions for its survival. It makes sense for a brain system to evolve which invents and remembers knowledge based on the usefulness of that knowledge for predicting activity in the organism&#8217;s environment. It does <em>not</em> make sense for a brain system to evolve which is geared for determining the &#8220;inherent nature&#8221; of physical reality &#8212; and it seems to me that our human brain-system is not geared that way and is incapable of that kind of knowing.</p>
<p>(Still, I think we can determine what the inherent nature of the world is <em>not</em>. I think we can determine, reasonably well, that the physical world is not mental in essence. It is not of the same stuff as knowledge.)</p>
<p>But back to your question. Right now we are unable to predict behavior at the quantum level. From that nothing else follows. It seems to me that when we say that something is &#8220;random&#8221;, all it means is that we are unable to predict its behavior in a useful way. Saying something is &#8220;random&#8221; is all about <em>us</em> and how useful our state of knowledge is. It doesn&#8217;t tell us anything about the fundamental nature of the physical world itself. Nothing ever will.</p>
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		<title>By: Your Daughter</title>
		<link>http://atheology.com/2007/08/06/naturalisms-touchstone-proposition/comment-page-1/#comment-154</link>
		<dc:creator>Your Daughter</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Mon, 17 Sep 2007 00:00:54 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://atheology.com/2007/08/06/naturalisms-touchstone-proposition/#comment-154</guid>
		<description>Is existence truly random at the quantum level, or is it that we are unable to predict behavior at that level? I have read arguments from physicists on both sides. My physics professor does not take a side on the issue. I am rather confused about the whole matter.</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Is existence truly random at the quantum level, or is it that we are unable to predict behavior at that level? I have read arguments from physicists on both sides. My physics professor does not take a side on the issue. I am rather confused about the whole matter.</p>
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		<title>By: Matthew</title>
		<link>http://atheology.com/2007/08/06/naturalisms-touchstone-proposition/comment-page-1/#comment-151</link>
		<dc:creator>Matthew</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Sat, 11 Aug 2007 14:33:45 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://atheology.com/2007/08/06/naturalisms-touchstone-proposition/#comment-151</guid>
		<description>Fantastic post. Very insightful, and a pleasure to read. Thank you for the explanation.</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Fantastic post. Very insightful, and a pleasure to read. Thank you for the explanation.</p>
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