Sure there's faith.* Belief in a a system is faith in the
system.* A beautiful argument even made mathematically is based
on the faith of accuracy in mathematics.* And, indeed,
mathematics is useful.* But usefulness for humans is one thing,
unwavering absolute truth is another.* Belief or faith in the
idea of absolute Truth - some image of reality that is perfect
and without Flaw - comes from Plato - perhaps even earlier - the
dualist idea that "There is the perfect reality that we can only
imagine, and here are the shadows on the wall which is all we
can see". But until we can have a point of view of the universe
that includes all perspectives - and not just our little human
one that happens to work for us at this time, on this little
planet - its hubris for us to believe that "we're at a point in
history that all things will soon be known through science" - or
mathematics or any endevour. There will always be more
discoveries.* And new ideas will overthrow old ones. None of it
is static.* Even the idea of the idea is a human construct -
there may be no such thing as an idea at all - perfected
somethings existing in nowhereland that perhaps if we work
really hard at it we may have control over.* That's an act of
Faith. Science is a very practical religious doctrine based
primarily on Aristotle and the idea that the mind is superior to
the body and that consensus of opinion through repeated
measurement is a valid measure of truth.* It is the idea that we
are somehow separate from the Universe we study and able to
isolate and generalize. Does it work?* Certainly!* is it
practical?* Does it get us places - give us new things to do?*
Absolutely.* I have nothing against the practice of the
Sciences. It's the absolute faith and trust in Science that
makes it a religious doctrine for some people.* I have a
religious doctrine of extreme Skepticism and that nothing is
sacred, anything can and should be deconstructed, especially
those truths which hold near and dear to us.
