Thursday, November 29, 2007

Paul Davies, Science And Faith

~ Paul Davies, Science And Faith ~


Paul Davies wrote an Op-Ed column for the New York Times on the 24th that discussed Faith and Science and compared it with Faith and Religion. Here is a link. I only read the article after seeing it referenced in some of the blogs I read. I think the uproar that this article has caused is "much a do about nothing".

The reason I say this is how I understand the concept of "Faith". To me this word is just a description of a universal attribute of human consciousness. I think that one of the fundamental bits about the way the human brain operates is that it must have explanations for everything. The concept of "Faith" is just such an operation. Here is how it works: The brain must explain everything and when it hits a wall (during reductionistic thinking) it has this ultimate fall back position or organization method and that is Faith. Every brain has this, otherwise we could get stuck in an infinite recursion loop. There is an expression, "It's Turtles All the Way Down." This expression is an alternate way of saying the same thing.

We do not get stuck in infinite recursion loops, you could even say that this is a survival attribute. It would not do be out on the plain hunting food and for some reason just freeze when confronted with a lion or other predator.