Are Factual And Religious Belief The Same?

[Captain Obvious]

Interesting article on a point that I've had a lot of interest in over the years.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/13.7/2014/1...elief-the-same

A new paper by philosopher Neil Van Leeuwen offers a third possibility: That factual belief isn't the same as religious belief. Even though we use the same word, our attitudes toward the respective propositions — that humans evolved thousands and thousands of years ago, that humans were created quite recently — could differ considerably.

To get your intuitions going, consider some ways in which you might entertain a proposition — say, that humans were created. You could imagine that humans were created. You could hypothesize that humans were created. You could assume for the sake of argument that humans were created ... and so on. Each of these "attitudes" toward a proposition is distinct, and Van Leeuwen aims to show that factual and religious beliefs are similarly distinct. If he's right, then our initial "contradiction" may be no more mysterious than the following:

Devon believes that humans evolved from earlier primates over 100,000 years ago.

Devon imagines that humans were created less than 10,000 years ago.

Behind the common word "belief" is something like this:

Devon (factually) believes that humans evolved from earlier primates over 100,000 years ago.

Devon (religiously) believes that humans were created less than 10,000 years ago.

But why suspect two meanings when we use a single word?

[Cigar]

[Refugee]

You can't have a 'factual belief' as it's based on subjective opinion. A belief becomes a fact when it's scientifically proved.

[Polecat]

You can't have a 'factual belief' as it's based on subjective opinion. A belief becomes a fact when it's scientifically proved.

Then it is "known"

[The Wash]

Let me ask you this, does knowing about quantum mechanics change what you're going to do today? All this faith versus science song and dance is pretty much meaningless in the grand scheme of most people's lives.

[Bob]

Interesting article on a point that I've had a lot of interest in over the years.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/13.7/2014/1...elief-the-same

It is my belief that early man had no idea what a day was, what a month was nor what a year was.

I never have assumed the first human showed up recently.

I believe humans took thousands of years to come up with the concept of measuring time.

[Chris]

You can't have a 'factual belief' as it's based on subjective opinion. A belief becomes a fact when it's scientifically proved.

Then it is "known"

Right, known, and not a belief.

But while science discovers facts, it's real business is formulating predictable explanations which prevail not because proven but more explanatorily powerful.

[Captain Obvious]

Let me ask you this, does knowing about quantum mechanics change what you're going to do today? All this faith versus science song and dance is pretty much meaningless in the grand scheme of most people's lives.

I couldn't disagree more.

How you look at things, philosophically changes who you are and how you think.

Not on a day-to-day basis mind you but in the long run.