What does it mean to be rational?
  • Andrei
    1
    What does it mean to be rational/reasonable? Is it reasonable to believe only things that can be and are verified empirically? Are things reasonable only if we understand them at an intuitive level?

    Is it reasonable to believe in God? An atheist would say it is not because there is no compelling evidence for that. A theist would say yes; how else would we explain the complexity that we see. Here the evolutionary biologist would say that evolution explains it - but this would not be sufficient for many theists. This is somehow understandable because we cannot really grasp what a billion or a million years, not even a thousand years; we cannot experience time periods that long - so we cannot really see how the small changes lead eventually to so vast outcomes.

    Is it reasonable that electrons* exist in a superposition of states before measurement? A physicist would say that it doesn't matter; this is the way nature works. But is it reasonable from a philosophical point of view?

    *Or any other quantum particle
    Andrei Options
  • Blue Lux
    581
    ↪Andrei
    Evolution is not the question, in my view.

    The question is the causa prima, the first cause.

    The main idea of God is necessitated from the questions "Why does anything exist?" and "How does anything exist?"
    It does not seem that it has to exist... And so how and why?

    People then say that there must have been a God to create it... That existence must have been created.
    But if existence had to be created, what was it created from or by? Wouldn't something else have to exist? And so the conclusion is that existence could not have been created... Unless there is a God that is its own cause... Which doesn't make any sense at all.
    If existence has to be created, what would have created the existence of a God?

    It doesn't seem to me that existence has to be created at all.

    In any case, it does seem that it has to be. This is the case by virtue of 'it.' It must be. It can be anything and therefore it represents everything, essentially, all of being. It cannot be isolated. It has a being. Everything has a being. It has to be and therefore all of being has to be, and therefore existence has to be.

    Or maybe I am wrong? Or maybe this is non-sequitur? Maybe I am stupid?
    Blue Lux Options
  • Heiko
    519
    What does it mean to be rational/reasonable? — Andrei
    Rationality is knowing purposes and means as such.
    Heiko Options
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