Tom McLeish - Critical Realism in Science and Theology

Does what we discover in science reflect what really exists in the world? Can science access external, independent, ultimate reality? “Realists” say Yes; “anti-realists”, No. Can we discern the ultimate reach of human knowledge? Clearly in science, but also, potentially, in theology. That’s what “critical realism” attempts to do.

Tom McLeish was Emeritus Professor of Natural Philosophy at the University of York. Elected Fellow of the Royal Society in 2011, he chaired its Education Committee. He was also a Senior Associate of Pembroke College, Oxford, and a former fellow of Emmanuel College Cambridge.

Closer To Truth, hosted by Robert Lawrence Kuhn and directed by Peter Getzels, presents the world’s greatest thinkers exploring humanity’s deepest questions. Discover fundamental issues of existence. Engage new and diverse ways of thinking. Appreciate intense debates. Share your own opinions. Seek your own answers.

[michaelboguski]

There's no "looking" at the Nuclear Fusion Reaction called Stars, and that's the Cosmos, no matter where it came from.

[markwrede]

Realism is a slippery evasion because ownership is not a physical property.

[brothermine]

As an alternative to McLeish's program of "trying to look at Nature through God's loving eyes, " why not simply look at Nature through our own loving eyes?

[TimBitts]

One of our big problems today has to do with the depth of reality, how complex it is, how long it takes to know lots about the limits of human intelligence. We are all like this. No matter how smart, or not. One of the things that has always been is, if you were really interested in something, you could lose yourself more and more in one topic, even very narrow topic, for the rest of your life. The internet jacks that up, on steroids. Laymen and scientists both face this problem. Perhaps it might be because, reality itself has infinite depth and breadth?...while humans do not?

If this is true, it's unlikely that science can figure out, all of reality.

The internet has made me more aware of this, because of the vast deluge of information available to me. It made me aware more now, how little I know, how complex things really are, even though at first glance if I think I understand them. Eventually I find out, I don't. I was missing pieces. I wasn't aware of much. Things have unanticipated consequences....or can only be understood, within an organic whole, which itself is being our grasp. Many things take decades to learn at a sufficiently high level, to speak with any deep understanding of something.

We're all human, we focus on what interests us. Even the most clever of us cannot help but be ignorant of most things, simply because the limits to our interests, our intelligence, even our time available, is very limited.

This segments deep learning. No one ends up being able to know how a match is made. Too many related parts to the process, no one has time to learn. We need more bridge builders.

It's something you see in public all the time now. Everyone's nose is in their smartphones. They become focussed on only a few things that interest them. Then we all get into our echo chambers, as we self select for interacting with people who share our interests or agree with us in the first place. That's like blinders on a race horse.

In short, we are all now, we are all Murray Gell-Man now....the friend of Einstein who was a brilliant scientist, but ignorant of many things.


If this keeps up, we'll all eventually end up at the conclusion Newton came to: "I do not know what I appear to the world, but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the seashore, and diverting myself, in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me."

[infinitygame]

MEDITATION & UNDERSTANDING THE PRESENT REALITY IS THE EASIEST WAY TO DRIVE THE NATURE BY SYNCHRONIZATION AND GIVING IT THE PROPER INFORMATION IS THE BEST WAY, ENTIRE HUMANITY CHILLAR KAMANE KE LIYE

[pauldorman]

Every interviewee that has appeared on this channel whose worldview is founded upon the a priori view that "God" exists comes across as absolutely bonkers to me. The mental contortions they put themselves through while trying rationalise the completely irrational are painfully confounding. I will never cease to be appalled by the fact that the vast majority of people in the world find it utterly impossible to conceive of a reality devoid of magic.

I keep coming back in the vain hope that someone will point out that reality is just so much easier to comprehend if you take "God" out of it entirely, but instead each video is a visceral disappointment that bears an uncanny resemblance to a signature moment in a film that has become more and more prescient as time goes on...

INT. WHITE HOUSE - CONFERENCE ROOM - DAY

Joe meets with the CABINET MEMBERS. He looks frustrated,
like this has been going on a while.

JOE
Once again, I'm pretty sure all that Rauncho stuff might
be what's killing the plants.

SECRETARY OF DEFENSE
But Rauncho's got what plants crave. It's got electrolytes.

ATTORNEY GENERAL
(thinking painfully hard)
So wait a minute... You're saying you want us to put
water on the crops? Water? Like out of the toilet?

JOE
It doesn't have to be from the toilet, but yes,
that's the idea.

SECRETARY OF DEFENSE
Okay, but Rauncho's got what plants crave.

ATTORNEY GENERAL
It's got electrolytes.

JOE
Look, your plants aren't growing. So I'm pretty sure the
Rauncho's not working. Now I'm no botanist, but I do
know that if you put water on plants they grow.

14-YEAR-OLD
Like from the toilet?

JOE
Look, you want to solve this problem, I want to get my
pardon. So why don't we try it, and stop worrying about
what "plants crave."

ATTORNEY GENERAL
(helpful)
Rauncho's got what plants crave.

SECRETARY OF DEFENSE
Yeah, it's like the commercial says, "Plants work hard,
and they need a drink that works hard."

14-YEAR-OLD
Oh, and it's got electrolytes.

Joe's about to lose it.

JOE
What are electrolytes? Does anyone even know?!

ATTORNEY GENERAL
They're what's in Rauncho.

JOE
But what are they?

ATTORNEY GENERAL
They're what they use to make Rauncho.

JOE
But why do they use them to make Rauncho?

SECRETARY OF DEFENSE
Cuz Rauncho's got electrolytes..

[infinitygame]

HOW YOUR MIND BRAIN AND CONCIOUSNESS SYNCHRONIZED TO UNDERSTAND AND SHOW YOU REALLTY IN PRESENT MOMENT, AAP YEH SAB KAISE SAMAJHTE HO SAMAJH LO, POORE HO JAOGE WITHOUT ANY QUESTION MARK, CREATE A LIVE

[infinitygame]

LEARNING THE ART OF ELIMINATION OF DESIRES AND ENJOYING THE SHOW OF LIGHT AND DARKNESS, LOVE WHILE YOU LOVE, WORK WHILE YOU WOK BAKI DHAYAN KARO SEELH KAR ASLI WALI FULL HOKE NA BAITHNA DHAYAN GOLCY

[kallianpublico]

Faith as the “evidence of things not seen”, can be seen as internalized rules. Rules such as moral codes or grammar or math or games or sports. Is that the case however? Is faith a belief in certain beliefs like morality or language, or is faith simply the ground of belief?
Children learn language by mimicry: memes. Then they go to school and learn to read and write, and for that they have to break language down into parts. They have to, now, memorize the alphabet and recognize things like nouns, verbs and subject-predicate agreement. What was once a matter of simple faith - mimicry, becomes a matter of unhinged faith - purpose.
Instead of faith in others whom you can see and interact with, now you must place faith in yourself 😮. The sentences you compose must not just make sense to yourself though, it must also make sense to others. Why though? If you understand what you’ve written why should you care whether or not others understand? Wasn’t the whole point to have faith in yourself? To decouple yourself from being just a parrot?
Is faith the beliefs we rely on? Is it not the reliance we believe in? When we use spoken language to communicate do we exhibit faith? Faith in what? Our ability to express ourselves, the ability of others to understand, language itself, the whole enterprise? Something else? Another assumption that has nothing at all to do with what we’re communicating or why?
How many things we take for granted are ingrained in whatever we do? Left out not just by deliberateness but by negligence and ignorance.
We can be paralyzed by fear and ignorance. Courage overcomes fear, but so does ignorance. What overcomes ignorance? Only experience. Faith is Hume’s “constant conjunction”. The opposite of faith is science’s “causation-necessary connection”.

[infinitygame]

PRESENT REALITY IS VIRGINLY BLESSED WITH JOY AND LOVE AND IS COMPATIBLE IN HANDLING EVERYTHING YOU CAN HANDLE, MORE PRECISELY, IF YOU LEARN THE WAY TO SYNCHRONIZE WITH IT, MEDITATION IS THE BEST FORM

[Maxwell-mvrx]

When Guys see God in Nature he doesnt figure out absolutetly God evidence. Unpredictable consciousness keep out how figure out this reality about God Nature.

[JustAThought]

Universal God:

My thought: God is our explanation for the causation of reality.

Since we do exist in our reality and God is our vision for the creation of reality, then God does exist. We just do not have knowledge of the nature of God.

With that said: humans have differing opinions on God. That is a fact. But, that fact does not establish the truth about God. Our beliefs about God should serve to improve lives not cause conflict among humans. So we need to redirect religion to serve the best interest of both God and God's creation.

Perhaps we should think about why reality exists. Does reality exist so that humans can try to dominate others or does reality exist so that humans can work together to make our lives better for all humans?

[infinitygame]

EXISTANCIAL REALISM SYSTEM APKI ENTIRE INTELLIGENCE & INTELECTUALITY SE ALWAYS 70 GUNA TIME AAGE RAHETA HAI, AAP USKO OVER RIDE NAHI KAR SAKTE AT ANY COST, BACCHA KAREGA KUCH NAHI GANDH & BIGAD ONLY

[peweegangloku]

Not only natural theology says look at nature and see God. The Bible itself says it. Romans 1:20 says, "For his invisible [qualities] are clearly seen from the world’s creation onward, because they are perceived by the things made, even his eternal power and Godship, so that they are inexcusable."

[chyfields]

We know that the Creator, being All, is conscious, sentient and emotional. When we deny the existence of the Creator or the Creation, do we hurt the Creator’s feelings or cause any emotional discomfort?

[pandoraeeris]

Man, you guy's are sitting rly close. 😂

[MrSanford]

Language is a false way of communicating existential truth, and assuming the universe is smarter than we are, it must communicate to us in a form of pictures and subjective feelings to be processed by us without any reference to a beginning and an ending . And that will be the focal point of that, which is everything

[angeleverable]

We all remember what J.B.S. Haldane said when asked what nature revealed about God: "He has a fondness for beetles." He also really, really likes parasites, tsunamis, and cerebral palsy.

[-by-_Publishing_LLC]

The problem with natural theology is that you have no verification process for "divine revelation." *Example:* If God revealed to me that I should be the leader of the modern world, how would I verify this revelation? The best way to approach theology AND science is through the prism of *logical conceivability* since both ideologies are bound by it.

Theists need to determine if an _"infinitely existing, all-knowing entity"_ is a logically conceivable conclusion just like physicists need to determine if an _"infinite stream of infinitely existing universes"_ is logically conceivable. ... The truth is that neither proposition survives when fired in the crucible of logical conceivability,

Any proposition that does not pass the litmus test of *logical conceivability* does not mean the proposition is wrong in its entirety, but rather that it needs to be reworked until it is deemed logically conceivable in its entirety.

If any part of a proposition results in logical inconceivability, then the proposition will never be universally accepted (no pun intended).

[infinitygame]

PRESENT REALITY IS VIRGINLY BLESSED WITH JOY AND LOVE AND IS COMPATIBLE IN HANDLING EVERYTHING YOU CAN HANDLE, MORE PRECISELY, IF YOU LEARN THE WAY TO SYNCHRONIZE WITH IT, MEDITATION IS THE BEST FORM