The real split that the discussion revealed wasn't between religion and science but some kind of deep philosophical split - demonstrated by the gravity comment.
I don't know enough about philosophy to label the different viewpoints. Can anyone help me out? Is F's point of view postmodernist? What about ours?
It seemed, as Paul says, a split between Maths/Science and Arts, but I'm interested in how our philosophies got so different that we couldn't really communicate.
My tentative theory is this. There are two 'worlds' in which we usually have to succeed - the world of physical stuff (mostly inanimate) and the world of human interaction. People's beliefs don't affect how most physical stuff behaves (e.g. the orbit of the moon, growth of a tree) but have big effects in the human world. Asking someone to do something for you, giving them gifts etc does wonders in the human world but the lightening tends to ignore you.
If your education means that you spend most time dealing with one of these worlds to the exclusion of the other, you end up thinking that everything works like that. Extreme result - someone who thinks gravity only works if you believe in it or alternatively someone who is unable to relate to other people. Stereotype arts/science students??
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2006-10-29 09:45 pm (UTC)I don't know enough about philosophy to label the different viewpoints. Can anyone help me out? Is F's point of view postmodernist? What about ours?
It seemed, as Paul says, a split between Maths/Science and Arts, but I'm interested in how our philosophies got so different that we couldn't really communicate.
My tentative theory is this. There are two 'worlds' in which we usually have to succeed - the world of physical stuff (mostly inanimate) and the world of human interaction. People's beliefs don't affect how most physical stuff behaves (e.g. the orbit of the moon, growth of a tree) but have big effects in the human world. Asking someone to do something for you, giving them gifts etc does wonders in the human world but the lightening tends to ignore you.
If your education means that you spend most time dealing with one of these worlds to the exclusion of the other, you end up thinking that everything works like that. Extreme result - someone who thinks gravity only works if you believe in it or alternatively someone who is unable to relate to other people. Stereotype arts/science students??