Thursday, April 30, 2009

Immanuel Kant

He was such a weird thinker. He wanted to save religion from reason, and yet, at the same time to save science from skepticism. He had great hopes in accomplishing these ambitions by longing to preserve for himself and for the world the essentials, at least of the faith inculcated in him by his mother. No doubt, in his time, he won much popularity; unfortunately, as a monument to German insanity. Save religion from reason? It is time well-spent if religious education was not evil. On the contrary, to begin with, religious education is evil because it means teaching children to believe and to have faith in the unknowable that is not even worth knowing. Now to save science from skepticism is a total waste of time and energy. Skepticism is what science is all about. There is nothing definite in science as everything in science is tentative. Listen to Carl Sagan on science: “Its only sacred truth is that there are no sacred truths. All assumptions must be critically examined. Arguments from authority are worthless. Whatever is inconsistent with the facts -- no matter how fond of it we are -- must be discarded or revised. Science is not perfect. It is often misused. It is only a tool, but it is the best tool we have -- self-correcting, ever changing, applicable to everything.” Bertrand Russell once admitted that what science cannot know, mankind cannot. Too bad an earlier philosopher in the likes of an Immanuel Kant could hardly grasp science is what we know and philosophy is what we do not know. Poch Suzara

2 comments:

Thomas Riggins Blog said...

But you went back outside and got the Bible back as you have been studying it for 20 years. Maybe you take another crack at the Critique?

Poch Suzara said...

My threw my beliefs of the bible messages out the window. I still read the book however to see just case I may have missed something. It is still a potent force for atheism I must say.
Kant's philosophy made Bertrand Russell sick. I will check further and deeper why? Thanks for your thoughtful response. Poch