{"id":2132,"date":"2018-02-04T23:54:17","date_gmt":"2018-02-05T04:54:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/soapboxredemption\/?p=2132"},"modified":"2018-02-05T00:16:56","modified_gmt":"2018-02-05T05:16:56","slug":"rosenberg-on-reality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/soapboxredemption\/2018\/02\/rosenberg-on-reality\/","title":{"rendered":"Rosenberg on Reality"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

You have to admire philosopher Alex Rosenberg. His skepticism is piercing. In An Atheists Guide to Reality<\/em>, he provides a list of questions and their answers, asserting \u201d\u00a0how totally unavoidable they are, provided you place your confidence in science to\u00a0provide the answers.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIs there a god?<\/em> No. What is the nature of reality?<\/em> What physics says it is. What is the purpose of the universe?<\/em> There is none. What is the meaning of life?<\/em> Ditto. Why am I here?<\/em> Just dumb luck\u2026 Is there a soul? Is it immortal?<\/em> Are you kidding? Is there free will?<\/em> Not a chance! \u2026 What is the difference between right and wrong, good and bad?<\/em> There is no moral difference between them. Why should I be moral?<\/em> Because it makes you feel better than being immoral. Is abortion, euthanasia, suicide, paying taxes, foreign aid, or anything else you don\u2019t like forbidden, permissible, or sometimes obligatory?<\/em> Anything goes. What is love, and how can I find it?<\/em> Love is the solution to a strategic interaction problem. Don\u2019t look for it; it will find you when you need it. Does history have any meaning or purpose?<\/em>\u00a0It\u2019s full of sound and fury, but signifies nothing.\u201d (Page 2)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Now this is clearly a strong form of scientism (which has its own problems), but what is definitely controversial, specifically among atheist thinkers, is\u00a0how far his skepticism goes, both in philosophically biting the bullet on things like morality, free-will, and consciousness, but even more specifically asserting atheism requires such an epistemology (a strict scientism).\u00a0I don\u2019t agree with his metaphysics or epistemology, but I appreciate the philosophical challenge though; we all have to square our world views.<\/p>\n

To be a \u201cgood atheist\u201d, he\u2019s asserted that science has revealed a universe bankrupt of purpose, meaning, morality, and free-will. All these things, the conscious self as a whole,\u00a0is an illusion birthed from Darwin\u2019s pond. He continues:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe big obstacle to accepting science\u2019s answers to life\u2019s relenting questions is deep, subtle, insidious, purely psychological, and probably hardwired into our genes. It\u2019s a problem even the most scientistic among us grapple with. It\u2019s not that some people will find the answers science gives scare or hard to follow. The problem doesn\u2019t even look like a problem. It has to do with the way we \u2013educated or uneducated, atheist or theist, agnostic, deist, scientist \u2013 in fact, all human beings \u2013 like our information to be \u2018packaged\u2019. We are suckers for a good story \u2013 a description of events in the form of a plot with characters driven by motives\u2026 We prefer our information to come in a package with a naturalstarting place, an exciting, tension-filled middle, topped off by a satisfying finish. We prefer stories with plots that make sense of the order of events by revealing their meanings.\u201d (Page 7-8)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Though it maybe troubling, failing to discard these notions is just prudish if you take atheism and science seriously.\u00a0There is something interesting at play here with Rosenberg\u2019s all-in-atheism. Though I disagree with his metaphysical and epistemology,\u00a0I find his skepticism\u00a0incredibly consistent.\u00a0Consider five propositions:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. God doesn\u2019t exist (atheism)<\/li>\n
  2. Matter is all that does (naturalism)<\/li>\n
  3. Free will is an illusion<\/li>\n
  4. Consciousness is an illusion<\/li>\n
  5. Morality is subjective\/relative<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    \u00a0<\/p>\n

    Folks like Sam Harris and Daniel Dennett are happy to jump on 1 + 2. Actually, Sam Harris agrees with all but 5, and finds that morality is \u201cobjective\u201d. How one can espouse 3 + 4, but reject 5 is a much longer conversation.\u00a0Daniel Dennett would be another interesting case, jumping in with 1, 2, and 4, but religiously (pardon the pun) holding on to 3 and 5.\u00a0Though there is no conscious self and all causes are natural and determined, but free will exists? This would be another longer conversation (and\u00a0I\u2019ll let Harris critique that view<\/a>), the\u00a0bottom line is that he finds the pursuit to salvage free will simply \u201ctheology\u201d [1].<\/p>\n

    Rosenberg\u2019s skepticism would not only concur, but throw Harris into the religious camp as well with his views on morality. Espousing any of those things is just special pleading and very unatheist. Again,\u00a0Rosenberg has his own metaphysics and epistemology to defend,\u00a0but there\u2019s something incredibly fresh about consistent skepticism, as opposed to pick-and-choose skepticism.<\/p>\n

    \u00a0<\/p>\n

    Notes:<\/p>\n

    [1] Harris, Sam. Free Will<\/em>, page 18.<\/p>\n

    \u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    You have to admire philosopher Alex Rosenberg. His skepticism is piercing. In An Atheists Guide to Reality, he provides a list of questions and their answers, asserting \u201d\u00a0how totally unavoidable they are, provided you place your confidence in science to\u00a0provide the answers.\u201d \u201cIs there a god? No. What is the nature of reality? What physics […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1687,"featured_media":2262,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2132","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-quote-bank"],"yoast_head":"\nRosenberg on Reality<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"You have to admire philosopher Alex Rosenberg. His skepticism is piercing. In An Atheists Guide to Reality, he provides a list of questions and their\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/soapboxredemption\/2018\/02\/rosenberg-on-reality\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Rosenberg on Reality\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"You have to admire philosopher Alex Rosenberg. His skepticism is piercing. In An Atheists Guide to Reality, he provides a list of questions and their\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/soapboxredemption\/2018\/02\/rosenberg-on-reality\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Soapbox Redemption\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-02-05T04:54:17+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2018-02-05T05:16:56+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/422\/2018\/02\/pic.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"314\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Andrew\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Andrew\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/soapboxredemption\/2018\/02\/rosenberg-on-reality\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/soapboxredemption\/2018\/02\/rosenberg-on-reality\/\",\"name\":\"Rosenberg on Reality\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/soapboxredemption\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2018-02-05T04:54:17+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-02-05T05:16:56+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/soapboxredemption\/#\/schema\/person\/fd1e2a09bc78d536b527a4212cb879a1\"},\"description\":\"You have to admire philosopher Alex Rosenberg. His skepticism is piercing. In An Atheists Guide to Reality, he provides a list of questions and their\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/soapboxredemption\/2018\/02\/rosenberg-on-reality\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/soapboxredemption\/2018\/02\/rosenberg-on-reality\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/soapboxredemption\/2018\/02\/rosenberg-on-reality\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/soapboxredemption\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Rosenberg on Reality\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/soapboxredemption\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/soapboxredemption\/\",\"name\":\"Soapbox Redemption\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/soapboxredemption\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/soapboxredemption\/#\/schema\/person\/fd1e2a09bc78d536b527a4212cb879a1\",\"name\":\"Andrew\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/soapboxredemption\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ded342cacb15edcf0fee37b3fcfcc9f0?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ded342cacb15edcf0fee37b3fcfcc9f0?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Andrew\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/soapboxredemption\/author\/andrewmurtagh\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Rosenberg on Reality","description":"You have to admire philosopher Alex Rosenberg. His skepticism is piercing. In An Atheists Guide to Reality, he provides a list of questions and their","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/soapboxredemption\/2018\/02\/rosenberg-on-reality\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Rosenberg on Reality","og_description":"You have to admire philosopher Alex Rosenberg. His skepticism is piercing. In An Atheists Guide to Reality, he provides a list of questions and their","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/soapboxredemption\/2018\/02\/rosenberg-on-reality\/","og_site_name":"Soapbox Redemption","article_published_time":"2018-02-05T04:54:17+00:00","article_modified_time":"2018-02-05T05:16:56+00:00","og_image":[{"width":600,"height":314,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/422\/2018\/02\/pic.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Andrew","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Andrew","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/soapboxredemption\/2018\/02\/rosenberg-on-reality\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/soapboxredemption\/2018\/02\/rosenberg-on-reality\/","name":"Rosenberg on Reality","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/soapboxredemption\/#website"},"datePublished":"2018-02-05T04:54:17+00:00","dateModified":"2018-02-05T05:16:56+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/soapboxredemption\/#\/schema\/person\/fd1e2a09bc78d536b527a4212cb879a1"},"description":"You have to admire philosopher Alex Rosenberg. His skepticism is piercing. In An Atheists Guide to Reality, he provides a list of questions and their","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/soapboxredemption\/2018\/02\/rosenberg-on-reality\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/soapboxredemption\/2018\/02\/rosenberg-on-reality\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/soapboxredemption\/2018\/02\/rosenberg-on-reality\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/soapboxredemption\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Rosenberg on Reality"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/soapboxredemption\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/soapboxredemption\/","name":"Soapbox Redemption","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/soapboxredemption\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/soapboxredemption\/#\/schema\/person\/fd1e2a09bc78d536b527a4212cb879a1","name":"Andrew","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/soapboxredemption\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ded342cacb15edcf0fee37b3fcfcc9f0?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ded342cacb15edcf0fee37b3fcfcc9f0?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","caption":"Andrew"},"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/soapboxredemption\/author\/andrewmurtagh\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/soapboxredemption\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2132","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/soapboxredemption\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/soapboxredemption\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/soapboxredemption\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1687"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/soapboxredemption\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2132"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/soapboxredemption\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2132\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/soapboxredemption\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2262"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/soapboxredemption\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/soapboxredemption\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/soapboxredemption\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}