A Defense of Reason,
Objective Reality,
and Sanity
by Thomas Ulatowski
Responsibility is central to morality because responsible behavior is love manifest. In other words, love is expressed by responsible, careful concern. Responsibility requires reacting to reality reasonably, so morality requires a concern to learn the truth about important issues.
Carl Sagan:
If we lived on a planet where nothing ever changed there wouldn't be much to do. There would be nothing to figure out. There would be no imputus for science. And if we lived in an unpredictable world where things changed in random or very complex ways we wouldn't be able to figure things out. And again there would be no such thing as science. But we live in an in between universe. Where things change alright, but according to patterns, rules, or as we call them, Laws of Nature. If I throw a stick up in the air it always falls down. If the Sun sets in the West it always rises again the next morning in the East. And so it's possible to figue things out. We can do science and with it we can improve our lives. Human beings are good at understanding the world. We always have been. We were able to hunt game or build fires only because we had figured something out.
Carl Sagan
So Sagan says that we can be scientific — we can do science. Nevertheless, in an attempt to mask the arbitrary essence of faith based beliefs, theologian Douglas Wilson declares, “You have faith in reason,” and “Both our positions are faith positions!” In a debate with scientist Richard Dawkins, the famous theologian, Cambridge Professor John Lennox argues as follows:
I think atheism undermines science very seriously because if you think of the basic assumption that all of us who are scientists have, that is, we believe in the rational intelligibility of the universe. And, …you've got to believe in the rational intelligibility of the universe before you can do any science at all. Science doesn't give you that.
This is ridiculous. Everyone knows that knowledge is valuable. How is it that we know that education is worth so many investments in time, money and effort? The short answer is simply that facts are sufficiently reliable. A reliable person seeks facts and tries to avoid false beliefs. And, every year the Human race accumulates more reliable information. Also, over time the average individual knows more. Why? Because this is our Human MO -- our survival relies on our ability to understand innumerable facts. Over the eons, we evolved big brains because we began to increasingly rely on information. In addition, we know we can continue to rely on almost all the facts that we rely on now because we know that nothing changes without a reason.
Reasoned out facts are reliable; therefore, reason is reliable. So we don't need any blind childish faith. In fact, the opposite is true. Over 90% of America's top scientists are not at all religious. Besides, even crows and chimps know that it's worthwhile to try to figure some things out. There is no need for faith simply because education and know-how are constantly rewarded. Think about this. If reason wasn't reliable -- if facts wern't reliable, not only would there be no reason to try to learn, there would be no difference between sanity and insanity — and no such thing as responsibility! And why would anyone want that?