3 ms·
Except for the lack of magic, I suppose?
by adrianN 6y ago
Except for the lack of magic, I suppose?
- Covzire 6y agoDepends, if a secular humanist believes that time, space and matter appeared out of nothing, which is indistinguishable from magic and on the grandest possible scale.
- adrianN 6y agoA secular humanist probably defers to the physicists on that question and is fine with the answer "we don't know".
- GavinMcG 6y agoOk, but what about literally every other scale? Because those are the ones that matter re: morality and how we show up in the world. Saying "both sides can't answer this one question" as though that implies that both sides are equally invested in magical thinking is a bit unfair.
- pessimizer 6y agoIt's definitely less of a magical explanation than that everything was created by a magic personality of endless love and ruthless judgment, whom you know personally through auditory hallucinations and the writings on ancient scrolls.
- karaterobot 6y agoI don't believe most educated, rational believers call their faith equivalent to a belief in magic, so that's kind of begging the question. Anyway, if we start inventorying our personal beliefs and the rational, empirical basis for each of them, I think we all probably practice magical thinking to some extent. I imagine some perfectly rational, omniscient alien interrogator questioning my most deeply held beliefs about, say, free will, or my individuality, or why the world is the way it is, and placing me somewhere on a continuum that includes witch-burners and cavemen, rather than in a completely separate category.