Academy Questions and Answers

Q: Can a "being" be harmed who may or may not exist?

A: Philosophy is concerned with words, with grammar and syntax. Your question as written says this; "There is a being who may or may not exist," then goes on to ask if that being can be harmed. To be answered at all, you, the questioner, must decide whether or not the being exists. You leave it hanging in limbo.

The only answer becomes this: If it exists, it can be harmed; if it does not exist the question of harm becomes irrelevant.

Q: Does determinism rid people of responsibility?

A: Naturalism.Org and the CenterForNaturalism.Org, both operated by philosopher Tom Clark http://www.pointofinquiry.org/tom_clark_... , are the most prominent web-based organizations promoting determinism.

Clark argues this:"Seeing that we are fully caused creatures - not self-caused - we can no longer take or assign ultimate credit or blame for what we do."

Never does he say we cannot take "any" responsibility; but in what manner one is to mitigate one's responsibility is never really addressed, as far as I can see. I have debated with Tom via email and I've used some of what he says in this blog. [Use the Search box above for "determinism", "free will", "Tom Clark", "fully caused", "contra-causal", etc.]

Q: Is existence caused by random chemical accidents and biological mutations or is there order and purpose?

A: Both. Nature acts randomly with the material that falls into its clutches. Gravity, for example, doesn't care what solid materials it holds to the surface of a globe.

On the other hand, the fact that there are rules in nature, which nature itself cannot change, means that the "order" and "purpose" of a thing is to fulfill the laws of nature that have been set upon it. But that is much different from the "rational order" we often see, and which we look for. "Rational order" is only what we make of it, and serves no purpose but that which we give it. Only a few hundred years ago there was no "purpose" for aluminum. There was natural "order" in it. But it took men to give purpose to the natural order found in the existence of that metal.

Q: Does language limit our ability to think? In other words, are the limitations of language a barrier to "deeper" understandings?

Language ENABLES us to attain "higher and deeper" thoughts. Actually, without language, we could have no thoughts.

Even when we were as primate as we could be, homo habilis had to have a language in order to say "danger" or "mine" or "damn you!" Every concept eventually has a word to represent it. Until the word has been created, it cannot be understood and used by anyone but him who has had the concept.

"In order to be used as a single unit, the enormous sum integrated by a concept has to be given the form of a single, specific, perceptual concrete, which will differentiate it from all other concretes and from all other concepts. This is the function performed by language." Ayn Rand

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Readers' Questions;"Libel Tourists"; Mark-to-Market

Readers Question, and I Answer

Q. Is law a basic code of ethics that all people are forced to live by? And is a man a bad person if his ethical code is not contingent with the law?

A. People break the law all the time and get away with it. Not because they are not caught, but because there are times when we are forced to disobey the law and obey the higher authority of our conscience. That is presuming our conscience is of a higher standard than even the law.

For example, a felon breaks the law by owning a gun, but then in his home he kills a mass murderer in the middle of the night who broke in. He must face the consequences of owning that gun, but if the prosecutor or the jury decide that this particular felon has owned the gun for 10 years and never fired it, they might find it justified and merely give him a slap on the wrist. Otherwise, if he's fired it before, he could go back to prison. Ethics are often accepted in law as being better than the law--if and when there is justification for it.

Q. What is your ideology of excellence? MORE

Islamo-fascists Use British Courts to Stop American Free Speech; Congress Fights Back

Condensed from www.washingtontimes.com/

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2007/jul/20/battling-censorship/

And from Act! For America

http://www.actforamerica.org/

One of the most potent weapons that global jihadists have to advance their cause is one of the least-remarked: censorship.

Billionaire Saudi financier Khalid Salim bin Mahfouz, sued Rachel Ehrenfeld, founder and director of the American Center for Democracy, for libel: in her book, "Funding Evil," she wrote that he was involved in funding Hamas and al Qaeda.

bin Mahfouz denied that he had knowingly given any money to either. Taking advantage of British libel laws that place the burden of proof on the defendant, rather than the plaintiff, Mr. bin Mahfouz sued not in the United States, where Miss Ehrenfeld lives and published her book, but in Britain, where neither he nor Miss Ehrenfeld live and where his entire case depended upon a handful of copies sold in that country mostly through special orders from Amazon.com, and the appearance of one chapter of the book on the Internet, where it may have been read by British readers.

Britain's libel laws have given rise to the phenomenon of wealthy "libel tourists," who sue there on the slimmest British connection in order to ensure a favorable ruling.

A shattering moment in America's fall from power

"There has been a good deal of talk in recent weeks about imminent economic armageddon. In fact, this is far from being the end of capitalism. The frantic scrambling that is going on in Washington marks the passing of only one type of capitalism - the peculiar and highly unstable variety that has existed in America over the last 20 years. This experiment in financial laissez-faire has imploded."

So wrote the author of the blog "Circle of 13," http://circleof13.blogspot.com/2008/10/shattering-moment-in-americas-fall-from.html But it is not entirely true. It may have laissez faire in the sense that no one was interfering in what Wall Street was doing; but that would be extremely misleading. Washington set the rules first, then, perhaps, did not interfere in the meltdown that Washington itself set in motion.

"U.S. Rep. Candice Miller is calling for the elimination or suspension of some current accounting practices as a way to improve the situation on Wall Street.

"One of those, she said, is the elimination or suspension of so-called mark-to-market accounting practices in relation to mortgage-backed securities. Mark-to-market accounting rules require assets to be valued at their current market value on a company’s books – and many believe mortgage-backed securities’ values have actually fallen below their inherent worth." freep.com http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080930/BUSINESS07/80930061 "Buried within the furore that has gripped Wall Street and other markets around the world, a request was submitted to suspend the practice of mark-to-market ..." wrote Business Day. http://www.businessday.co.za/articles/companies.aspx?ID=BD4A854855

"Under the 'mark-to-market' rules banks value profits based on an estimation of future income based on a calculation of what would be raised if all loans and mortgages were sold in the market at the best possible price. "A number of politician and economists believe this practice has been a key factor in the decimation of the banking system because it does not reflect the true value of the assets in turbulent market conditions." citywire http://www.citywire.co.uk/professional/-/features/sector-watch/content.aspx?ID=316017 MORE

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Naturalist Resources--A Short List Part 2

Last week on Thursday I published Part 1 of a list of resources for naturalists who are getting their feet wet in the subject, or who need further explanation. This is not going to be a "regular" Thursday feature. You won't see it again for several weeks, if ever. But tomorrow's blog, like yesterday's is about "free will vs. naturalism." That is a subject laden with pitfalls and dark corners and hidden doors. It won't be ready until tomorrow. Today, the list, Part 2.

The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy is always a good place for good information. Its first two paragraphys under the heading "Naturalism" make clear the nature of the beast:

"The term ‘naturalism’ has no very precise meaning in contemporary philosophy. Its current usage derives from debates in America in the first half of the last century. The self-proclaimed ‘naturalists’ from that period included John Dewey, Ernest Nagel, Sidney Hook and Roy Wood Sellars. These philosophers aimed to ally philosophy more closely with science. They urged that reality is exhausted by nature, containing nothing ‘supernatural’, and that the scientific method should be used to investigate all areas of reality, including the ‘human spirit’ (Krikorian 1944, Kim 2003).
"So understood, ‘naturalism’ is not a particularly informative term as applied to contemporary philosophers. The great majority of contemporary philosophers would happily accept naturalism as just characterized—that is, they would both reject ‘supernatural’ entities, and allow that science is a possible route (if not necessarily the only one) to important truths about the ‘human spirit’." http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/naturalism/

The Secular Web is owned and operated by the Internet Infidels, Inc., a nonprofit educational organization dedicated to defending and promoting a naturalistic worldview on the Internet.

An apparent sister site, http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/nontheism/naturalism/ begins with its own short comparison between "metaphysical" and "methodological" naturalism, then lists a number of articles, all very much worth reading, under each heading.

(You will notice that where many "metaphysical" naturalists deny the existence of a "soul," and of "free will," this website takes the opposite view. See The Academy's Definition of "Strong" Naturalism in the left column.)

In addition, The Secular Web has one page devoted simply to listing all the names of the authors who have contributed to their site. The list is long, and impressive. http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/author.html They also have a Subject Index http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/index.html , and their own Library, which is another list http://www.infidels.org/library/

Freedom From Religion Foundation, http://www.ffrf.org/ , while not strictly a "naturalist" organization, has "more than 12,000 members, is the nation's largest association of freethinkers (atheists and agnostics). FFRF has been working since 1978 to promote freethought and to keep state and church separate.
"The Foundation promotes freedom from religion with a weekly national radio show, its newspaper Freethought Today, a freethought billboard campaign and other educational endeavors, including scholarships for freethinking students. In addition, the Foundation acts on countless violations of the separation of state and church, and has taken and won many significant complaints and important lawsuits to end state/church entanglements. No one has fought harder than FFRF to legally challenge the "faith-based initiative."

They have a billboard reading: "Keep Religion OUT of Politics." It is currently displayed in Denver and will remain there throughout the Democratic National Convention.

The Skeptics Dictionary http://www.skepdic.com/naturalism.html is like most other sites, attempting to explain the differences in the naturalistic points of view. It has a great number of live links to the various aspects of naturalism, then concludes that short section with this:

"The difference between mechanistic and teleological views may best be understood by considering a few examples," after which it lists the sex drive, bee pollination, pedophilia, What is the purpose of evil? teleology according to Spinoza, naturalistic worldview, and further reading.

The New Advent Catholic Encyclopedia http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/10713a.htm is a frequently used resource of mine. It is as objective as any reference, at least above the "blue line," where it merely defines the subject. Below the "blue line" is definitely the dogmatic version of the subject. But even having the dogma defined is often useful, and as dogma-defined goes, this Catholic reference is still objective, never preachy, merely saying what the Church says.

ALL ABOUT PHILOSOPHY.Org is obviously a theist organization, given that their only subtitle to "Naturalism" is "Improbable." http://www.allaboutphilosophy.org/naturalism.htm But they do a good job of explaining the "defeator" arguments against naturalism (see this Academy's blog 8.11-8.16.08.)

It is definately good to understand the defeator arguments. As this blog explained in that week, you are an "uninformed" naturalist, according to Dr. Quentin Smith, if you don't know how to defeat the defeators. In a sidebar, All About lists other "world views" like atheism, secular humanism, and existentialism, among many. Interesting reading for anyone wanting to understand "the other side."

"Defense of Naturalism" by Keith Augustine, is his "Thesis submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of theUniversity of Maryland, College Park in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree ofMaster of Arts 2001." http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/keith_augustine/thesis.html So if you are up to a long academic paper, this one is for you. It is also available at The Secular Web, listed above.


"An Atheist Fairy Tale" http://bevets.com/evolution.htm is a well-put-together and interesting commentary on the connection between atheism and evolution, with many attributions, but it seems to have no author. But for the sake of the good tale, here are the links to it:
Contents:
Evolutionism and Atheism
Common Objections
What is the evidence?
Intelligent Design
Theory or Fact?
Scientists and Bias
Evolutionism and Scripture
Consequences
Are Creationists Honest?
Audio Video
Links
Works Cited
It ends with this quote: "Evolutionism needs atheism needs evolutionism needs atheism needs evolutionism.Garbage in: Garbage out."


Another good argument for the "other side" is the PDF The Logical Underpinnings of Intelligent Design.

The Center for Naturalism and Naturalism.Org have a Yahoo group http://groups.yahoo.com/group/appliednaturalism/ If you feel like discussing the subject with an organization that has some of the best scientific minds behind it, this one is for you. There is no guarantee you will get answers from any of those scientific minds, but you could always address your questions to one of those parent websites. Or you could get into arguments with their members about whether or not humans have souls and free will.

"NATURALISM IS AN ESSENTIAL PART OFSCIENCE AND CRITICAL INQUIRY" by Steven D. Schafersman http://www.freeinquiry.com/naturalism.html was a "paper originally presented at the Conference on Naturalism, Theism and the Scientific Enterprise, sponsored by the Department of Philosophy, The University of Texas, Austin, Texas, February 20-23, 1997."

So, by clicking on that blue link to the conference, you automatically get ANOTHER resource. Don't you just love how the internet actually works?

"A Philosophical Premise of 'Naturalism'?" by Mark Isaak (another blue link) http://www.talkdesign.org/faqs/naturalism.html is published by Talkdesign.Org, http://www.talkdesign.org/cs/ which "is a response to the "Intelligent Design" movement of creationism. It is dedicated to: Assessing the claims of the Intelligent Design movement from the perspective of mainstream science. Addressing the wider political, cultural, philosophical, moral, religious, and educational issues that have inspired the ID movement. Providing an archive of materials that critically examine the scientific claims of the ID movement. We feel that the "Intelligent Design" arguments require this kind of focused attention due to their widespread use in antievolutionary activity."

Isaak's paper says, "we will see that the complaint about naturalism is applied unfairly to discredit only those parts of science that naturalism's critics oppose on ideological grounds."

Another of my favorite references for many things aside from naturalism is The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy http://www.iep.utm.edu/n/naturali.htm . I'm not certain, but I think there is an Objectivist or a neo-objectivist behind this resource.

Apex Naturalism http://apexnaturalism.org/ is an online magazine. On its About Page it says: "An apex is the top, peak or summit. Naturalism is a system of belief that proposes that all phenomena can be explained in terms of natural causes and laws. Thus Apex Naturalism means being dedicated to becoming the best Naturalist that we can be.
This inevitably means learning about ourselves, our naturalism and the world around us. This magazine is dedicated to that unending quest for wisdom and knowledge."

I just bookmarked that one for myself. It looks good.

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This publication © 2008 by Curtis Edward Clark and Naturalist Academy Publishing ®

Introduction to The Free Assemblage

and The Academy
of Metaphysical Naturalism

Metaphysical Naturalism holds that Man has a spiritual soul not dependent on a supernatural or divine entity; that the soul begins tabula rasa and dies with the body; that existence has always existed and required no supernatural entity for its existence; and practices no rituals of religion, relying instead on Reason in the conduct of all the affairs of Man.

The Free Assemblage of Metaphysical Natrualists holds that morality is objective and, in the absence of a divinity who forgives Man's sins, that a rational morality is all that stands between purposless existence, and an existence of virtue and character. It practices no rituals of religion, relying instead on Reason in the conduct of all the affairs of Man.

The Academy of Metaphysical Naturalism offers programs for learning the tenets of The Free Assemblage. A "free church" will be explained below. The Academy wil also offer tracts authored by Assemblage Members on any subject related to Naturalism, including its other forms. All rational discussion is advanced, and unsolicited articles for this regular blog will be accepted at either of the posted email addresses. Some of these materials are written by our educators. Some are chosen by our Professors from their own works or from other established authors in the various fields that comprise the Philosophy, Theology, Sociology, Politics, Ethics and other associated subjects of Metaphysical Naturalism itself.

Free Church

A free church has been described in many ways, in many places, including cyberspace where there is a lot of activity in the area of defining such an idea and promoting the existence of such free churches. The purpose of a free church is to provide the same theological and philosophical assembly as any "brickfront" buiding. But in the case of The Free Assemblage of Metaphysical Naturalists, the "assemblage" is in cyberspace and by such other methods as enables the distribution of empirically published or electronically published materials as it shall see fit to publish, distribute, or otherwise disseminate to its Members or to Students of the Academy.

Links to independent materials concerning "free churches"

http://jrpm.org/free.php

http://hushmoney.org/free-church_solution.htm

http://www.ecclesia.org/truth/501-church.html

But as you can see, each of those referential links connects a free church to Christianity. How does a free church work that is not connected to a religion that affirms a diety and purposeful creation of existence?

According to a website that attempts to define "religion," one definition is "A belief concerning the supernatural, sacred, or divine, and the practices and institutions associated with such belief."

Metaphysical Naturalism is very definitely concerned with defining such things, and with the denial of their existence, replacing the belief in the supernatural with a certainty about the natural cosmology of the universe and existence itself.

The same website alternately defines "religion" as "The sum total of answers given to explain humankind's relationship with the universe."

[Thanks to "allaboutreligion.org and

http://www.allaboutreligion.org/definition-of-religion-faq.htm ]

In the case of The Free Assemblage, the "sum total of answers" has many descriptions and many summations. One of this author's favorites comes from the "Dictionary of Philosophy", Dagobert D. Runes, Editor, 1942, Littlefield, Adams and Co. http://www.ditext.com/runes/index.html

"Naturalism, challenging the cogency of the cosmological, teleological, and moral arguments, holds that the universe requires no supernatural cause and government, but is self-existent, self-explanatory, self-operating, and self-directing, that the world-process is not teleological and anthropocentric, but purposeless, deterministic (except for possible tychistic events), and only incidentally productive of man; that human life, physical, mental, moral and spiritual, is an ordinary natural event attributable in all respects to the ordinary operations of nature; and that man's ethical values, compulsions, activities, and restraints can be justified on natural grounds, without recourse to supernatural sanctions, and his highest good pursued and attained under natural conditions, without expectation of a supernatural destiny."

If this does not describe "The sum total of answers given by Metaphysical Naturalism to explain humankind's relationship with the universe," then nothing does.

The Academy will distribute materials having a rational relationship with this Philosophy, through its publishing arm, Naturalist Academy Publishing.

This blog, and The Newsletter of the Free Assemblage of Metaphysical Naturalists copyright 2008 by

Curtis Edward Clark and The Free Assemblage of Metaphysical Naturalists, Naturalist Academy Publishing

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