Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!lll-tis!ames!mailrus!cornell!uw-beaver!mit-eddie!bloom-beacon!cs.exeter.ac.UK!jtr From: jtr@cs.exeter.ac.UK (Jason Trenouth) Newsgroups: comp.ai.digest Subject: Re: The Godless assumption Message-ID: <19880824175408.7.NICK@HOWARD-JOHNSONS.LCS.MIT.EDU> Date: 24 Aug 88 17:54:00 GMT Sender: daemon@bloom-beacon.MIT.EDU Organization: The Internet Lines: 39 Approved: ailist@ai.ai.mit.edu To: comp-ai-digest@ukc.ac.uk Path: expya!jtr From: Jason Trenouth Newsgroups: comp.ai.digest Subject: Re: The Godless assumption Date: Wed, 24 Aug 88 07:01 EDT References: <19880812193740.4.NICK@HOWARD-JOHNSONS.LCS.MIT.EDU> Sender: mcvax!cs.exeter.ac.uk!news@uunet.UU.NET Distribution: local Organization: Computer Science, Exeter University, UK. Lines: 25 In-Reply-To: IT21@SYSB.SALFORD.AC.UK's message of 12 Aug 88 19:37:00 GMT Posting-Front-End: GNU Emacs 18.41.3 of Thu Jan 7 1988 on exsc (berkeley-unix) Surely the "godless assumption" is the natural assumption of all scientific endevour? If we begin allowing for the existance of a supernatural god, who could interfere with our experiments, then any major difficulty might halt progress. The scientists could reason that their god just doesn't want them to know any more. Its extreme form is "Cartesian doubt": I think therefore I am, and I definitely can't try to do any research! Some theists get around this aspect of an interfering god by positing that it created the universe, which now runs all by itself according to some laws. In this case we don't need to take the god into account anyway. There is another alternative, which is to argue that there are a number of people whose minds are effected by belief in a god, even though we assume its nonexistence. In this case it is merely another facet of human cognition available for study. Ciaou - JT. -- ______________________________________________________________________________ | Jason Trenouth, | JANET: jtr@uk.ac.exeter.cs | | Computer Science Dept, | UUCP: jtr@expya.uucp | | Exeter University, Devon, EX4 4PT, UK. | BITNET: jtr%uk.ac.exeter.cs@ukacrl|