God and Logic

While many scientists and thinkers have become staunch atheists, it is a mistake, as the author of "Confessions of a Philosopher" points out that Kant points out.

Rather, they should be staunch agnostics. The truth is, we don't know everything, therefore we can't claim that we can explain everything. In fact, there are many many things we know we cannot explain. Random chance we cannot predict. Nor do we know the unknown. These areas have all the potential for forces that are beyond our ever comprehending. There are some things that may not be capable of being known or recovered, even if humans were superhuman. I'm talking about things like the information that disappears into a black hole, or the path an electron took. These things we can never explain or know and that is exactly what magic or god is sometimes defined as, when its not being claimed as something greater. We can't prove there is magic or god in these things, but we can't know the opposite either, therefore we should never claim we know either way if we truly want to be logical and scientific.
Logic and science and truth are defined and founded on what we can prove or predict reliably. So its a fallacy to argue that which we cannot know or explain does not exist. Its legitimate to say its unlikely, but silly to say we believe everything can be explained. We have no evidence that is so, and an equal amount of evidence that it is not so.

Admittedly, its hard to accept that there is the possibility of magic when these disciplines strive to dispel all incomprehension, but its not so difficult. Many many things are effected or driven by chance, and really, that's all we are acknowledging. For all purposes it is not conducive to assume there are unknowns being manipulated by an intelligent force, or that there are unknowable unknowns (and any attempt at insight is useless). However, it is also a problem if we do not acknowledge what is true and what our limits are. To close our minds to anything is against the nature of seeking truth, even if we are closing our minds against what is silly, impossible, or just plain inconvenient.

I am not suggesting that logicians become religious or occult. I am not suggesting anything related to responses to believers in specific deities or myths. I am only suggesting that they stop being reactionary and dismissing all unknown forces as fantasy or illusion. Instead evaluate them on their likelihood and evidence or repercussions. They will likely arrive at essentially the same conclusion, but its important to arrive at the conclusion for the right reasons and to explain them to others as such. Its a small way to better those around you, and equally importantly, to better yourself.

The reverse is true of religious persons - they should acknowledge what has been proven or evidenced by science and learn more about their god or magic in this way. What ways it does not operate in does not mean that it operates any less greatly. In fact, knowing what god or magic is not doing means you are closer to discovering what beauty it is engaged in. Just because it has become that much harder to comprehend does not mean it is any less grand. In fact I would argue it makes it more grand, if it does exist. Trying to prove they exist is also likely not a good way to appreciate them. Trying too hard to prove them is far more damaging than giving up proving them. You limit your own ability to see the much finer possibilities, and you lose sight of the beauty to be discovered when you stop in one definition and stick to it. You don't get the chance to experience a progression of grandeur as you discover all the ways such things could exist and operate around us.

One of my favorite quotes runs thus:

"If you do the right thing for the wrong reasons, the work becomes corrupted, impure, and ultimately self-destructive." - Lennier

I try to follow its advice and root out my own biases and corruption so I may better reach what I seek, whether its a world driven by logic or by magic.