Beyond God and atheism: Why I am a 'possibilian'27 September 2010 by David Eagleman
New Scientist Magazine issue 2779
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20727795.300-beyond-god-and-atheism-why-i-am-a-possibilian.html?full=trueWhen it comes to the big questions, why should we have to either deny God or believe? Surely good science doesn't so restrict us, says David Eagleman"Given these considerations, I do not call myself an atheist. I don't feel that I have enough data to firmly rule out other interesting possibilities. On the other hand, I do not subscribe to any religion. Traditional religious stories can be beautiful and often crystallise hard-won wisdom - but it is hardly a challenge to poke holes in them. Religious structures are built by humans and brim with all manner of strange human claims - they often reflect cults of personality, xenophobia or mental illness. The holy books of these religions were written millennia ago by people who never had the opportunity to know about DNA, other galaxies, information theory, electricity, the big bang, the big crunch, or even other cultures, literatures or landscapes.
So it seems
we know too little to commit to strict atheism, and too much to commit to any religion."
"Consider the enormous "
possibility space" of stories that can be dreamed up. Take the entirety of the Judeo-Christian-Islamic tradition as a single point in this possibility space. The eastern religions are another point. Strict atheism is another point. Now think of the immense landscape of the points in between. Many of these points will contain stories that are crazy, silly, or merely wildly improbable. But in the absence of data, they can't be ruled out of that space.
This is why I call myself a "possibilian". Possibilianism emphasises the active exploration of new, unconsidered notions. A possibilian is comfortable holding multiple ideas in mind and is not driven by the idea of fighting for a single, particular story. The key emphasis of possibilianism is to shine a flashlight around the possibility space. It is a plea not simply for open-mindedness, but for an active exploration of new ideas.
In every generation, people are seduced by the idea that they possess all the tools they need to explain the universe. They have always been wrong. From consciousness to dark energy, we know that we are missing an unknowable number of pieces of the puzzle. This is why in the debates between the strict atheists and the fundamentally religious, I choose a third side. A little less pretence of certainty and a little more exploration of the possibility space."
A blog post inspired by it:
Possibly I'm becoming more of a "possibilian"by Brian Hines
September 28, 2010
Church of the Churchless
http://hinessight.blogs.com/church_of_the_churchless/2010/09/possibly-im-becoming-more-of-a-possibilian.html"I realized that I'm no longer so much into searching for meaning of life and ultimate reality
answers. Rather, I'm passionate about pursuing the
questions in the most satisfying fashion.
What is life all about, after all, but possibilities? Certainties are dead, rigid, barren, and -- seemingly paradoxically -- unreal. Uncertainty is the way of science. Also, the way of every human being."
Locked
