From: "D. F. Siemens, Jr." <dfsiemensjr@juno.com>
On Thu, 25 Apr 2002 09:16:06 -0600 John W Burgeson <burgytwo@juno.com>
writes:
> Al:
>
> Back home for a few hours. Looked on my hard file for the "Consider
> all
> the evidence" quote. I found only the following:
>
> Methodological Atheism -- rule #1 of science
> -- better name is "methodological naturalism."
> -- dates back to the Epicureans, about 200 B.C.
> -- "Ascribe nothing to the gods"
> -- Necessary to avoid the "god-of-the-gaps" trap
I can make sense of this in connection with the Epicurean view that
everything is atoms and the void, with falling atoms connecting and
disconnecting in all possible combinations. Consequently, every
combination exists someplace. This includes gods, which are merely
combinations of atoms. So gods would not be any sort of privileged
explanation. From my viewpoint, I have to ask what the evidence for these
atoms is, and I have to object to the eternal fall. I also have to say
that this seems a long stretch to methodological naturalism.
Dave
> -- Rule #2 -- "Consider ALL the evidence." (also Epicureans)
>
> The place I found it suggests to me that the citation is from
> "Atheism,"
> by Otto Strunk, although that part is from memory, not my notes,
> which
> are decades old and made when I obviously did not recognize that
> citations were of sufficient importance to document. My excuse is
> that
> the notes were made for myself only at that time and I did not
> recognize
> them as particularly important. Which is not much of an excuse.
>
> Sorry I cannot do better.
>
> John Burgeson (Burgy)
>
> http://www.burgy.50megs.com
> (science/theology, quantum mechanics, baseball, ethics,
> humor, cars, philosophy and much more)
>
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