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I love to get comments and usually respond. So come back to see my reply. You can click here to see my comment policy.
I like some of Lewis' fiction, but his philosophy I've always found lacking, even when I was a Christian. How can he trust his brain to believe in God? Curious that he would choose such circular reasoning.
ReplyDeleteI find it circular reasoning only if God did not create the brain Mike. If the brain came from random accidents of nature then it is no more reliable than the big bang that began it's evolution. But if there was a Designer behind it's creation than it is reliable. IMO. :)
DeleteWell, it would still be circular reasoning, it would just be correct. ;-)
DeleteI disagree Mike.
DeleteDeism begins with a positive - Divine intelligence exists and created human intelligence.
Athism begins with a negative - Divine intelligence does not exist and any human intelligence is a result randomness not intelligence.
In my thinking the issue is a rational faith in that divine intelligence. If one does not begin there then they have to build on a negative foundation that is ultimately circular in nature because they do not have a point to begin with.
Is the absence of something a negative? There would be no atheism without deism. Before I had heard of the supposed existence of Sasquatches I didn't believe in them, I wasn't stating positively or negatively whether they existed.
DeleteIt seems to me his argument goes: God exists and created me and my brain, allowing me to think. Because I can think and trust my own thinking, God exists.
Perhaps I am misinterpreting his words.
Very true Mike. Atheism is based on a negative. Atheists would have nothing to not believe in without God. :)
DeleteFor the record, I do not have a position on the Big Foot.
It is not really circular to conclude a conclusion that contradicts my starting point is false. If I start with the idea I thinking and reach a conclusion by thinking that I cannot think, either my conclusion is wrong (and there is something wrong with my reasoning in getting there)or my original idea that I can think is wrong so I cannot start reasoning at all.
Delete