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It starts off with some lovely historical scene setting. Then we get to the "discussion about the first principles". It's been a while - my Latin is a bit rus

It starts off with some lovely historical scene setting. Then we get to the "discussion about the first principles". It's been a while - my Latin is a bit rusty. "He was confident that we can know God’s existence by the unaided work of natural reason" "One dogma that he thought philosophy could demonstrate was the existence of God. ... but he also thought that philosophy, or natural reason, could demonstrate that there is a supreme nature" If you start off with the presumption of something existing, there is a very high probability that you will prove its existence, to your satisfaction. If you believe in a particular God there is no need to subvert other doctrines or philosophies. You already have your proof, in your beliefs and faith. That is literally the definition of faith. You don't even need dogma (unless you do because you believe you do). Faith is faith. If you start messing deity existence around with philosophy and science then things may get a bit sticky. Scotus seems like a really clever lad in the 1300s who had some superb philosophical ideas. If only he hadn't wasted his intellect on theology! However, we would probably not know of him outside of theology if he hadn't been a priest. Thank the Lord for small mercies.

NoZebra120vClip 3y ago
Don't you think that an intellectually gifted philosopher is able to start with a null hypothesis, and avoid begging the question? Perhaps you don't understand what faith is, or its relation to reason, or how "science" was understood by scientists of the 13th century. Faith is empty and useless without reason. Likewise, reason is useless and empty without faith. They are intertwined and interdependent. See what Pope St. John Paul the Great wrote in Fides et ratio about wings. There have been some amazing applications of formal logic and other scientific methods in service to the Christian faith. It seems like rubbish to someone who rejects their purpose or foundation, but nevertheless, priest-scientists laid all the foundations for modern engineering, discovery, genetics, astronomy: you name it, and that tradition of inquiry is still honored today, mostly by Catholic laypersons.
- gerdesj 3y ago
  "Perhaps you don't understand what faith is, or its relation to reason, or how "science" was understood by scientists of the 13th century." Well, that is pretty damning! How on earth can you pontificate on the nature of my understanding of faith? I may take a peek at ... (I studied Latin 40 odd years ago) ... Faith and rationality (Reason is probably a better translation) about wings. However, I'm pretty sure it isn't going to involve solving special cases of Bernoulli equations or Finite Element Analysis. You have your notion of faith and I have mine. I would never dream of describing your notions of faith as false or misled or misguided or anything else. I respect your faith and your right to have as such. I'd be grateful if you would extend the same courtesy to me and anyone else who has a difference of opinion to yourself. Your elements of engineering, science etc list seems to have missed out rather a lot of the world. For starters: algorithms are named after an Arab bloke. Our "alphabet" is named after the first two letters of Hebrew, our numbers are famously Arabic. Nought/nowt/null/zero/nothing as a mathematics concept largely comes from Islamic scholars. What we now call India and China also have a massive input to the basics - too much for this comment 8)

NoZebra120vClip 3y ago

Don't you think that an intellectually gifted philosopher is able to start with a null hypothesis, and avoid begging the question? Perhaps you don't understand what faith is, or its relation to reason, or how "science" was understood by scientists of the 13th century. Faith is empty and useless without reason. Likewise, reason is useless and empty without faith. They are intertwined and interdependent. See what Pope St. John Paul the Great wrote in Fides et ratio about wings. There have been some amazing applications of formal logic and other scientific methods in service to the Christian faith. It seems like rubbish to someone who rejects their purpose or foundation, but nevertheless, priest-scientists laid all the foundations for modern engineering, discovery, genetics, astronomy: you name it, and that tradition of inquiry is still honored today, mostly by Catholic laypersons.

gerdesj 3y ago
"Perhaps you don't understand what faith is, or its relation to reason, or how "science" was understood by scientists of the 13th century." Well, that is pretty damning! How on earth can you pontificate on the nature of my understanding of faith? I may take a peek at ... (I studied Latin 40 odd years ago) ... Faith and rationality (Reason is probably a better translation) about wings. However, I'm pretty sure it isn't going to involve solving special cases of Bernoulli equations or Finite Element Analysis. You have your notion of faith and I have mine. I would never dream of describing your notions of faith as false or misled or misguided or anything else. I respect your faith and your right to have as such. I'd be grateful if you would extend the same courtesy to me and anyone else who has a difference of opinion to yourself. Your elements of engineering, science etc list seems to have missed out rather a lot of the world. For starters: algorithms are named after an Arab bloke. Our "alphabet" is named after the first two letters of Hebrew, our numbers are famously Arabic. Nought/nowt/null/zero/nothing as a mathematics concept largely comes from Islamic scholars. What we now call India and China also have a massive input to the basics - too much for this comment 8)