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Name____________________________________ Page 1 Who are you? Reference Assertion THE001 Everything must have started somewhere, or must have come from something, and that beginning source of everything is a Supreme Being. THE002 Everything that happens is observed and guided by a mind or power beyond the natural world. THE003 The world was created for a purpose and is fulfilling that purpose. THE004 I am not just an animal; instead, I am related to a higher being outside the material world. ATH005 The world may not have a starting point, and if it does, that point is not God. ATH006 What we can see, touch, and investigate scientifically is all there is; belief in God is just prescientific superstition. ATH007 The world is completely comprehensible; everything that happens can be explained by circumstances and prior causes. ATH008 Human abilities are more developed than animals’ abilities, but are not different in kind. CON001 Nothing could justify the creation of a world in which innocent people suffer the way they do. CON002 Even if suffering built character (which is doubtful), the character is not worth the cost in pain and anguish. CON003 The universe does not exist for our sakes; it is beneficial in some ways and harmful in others, but the universe does not care at all. CON004 Some people are emotionally dependent on the idea of God, and they will believe and say illogical things to keep that idea. REC005 Suffering is a terrible thing, but in the long run it makes us better human beings. REC006 God expects a lot from us; we should not think that he treats us like fragile children. REC007 A life of challenges and accomplishments is better than an easy life of pleasure. REC008 God is not a complete mystery; we can understand why he allows people to suffer. TER001 I am so intertwined with my body, and my very idea of myself is so dependent on my consciousness of my body, that I could not possibly exist without my body. TER002 It is impossible to imagine (clearly, in detail) existing and interacting with the world without a body. TER003 All the images and ideas of heaven or an afterlife are simply images of earthly life with the defects removed; no one has described any so-called disembodied existence. TER004 All the alleged evidence of “life beyond the grave” can be explained by purely natural means (such as optical illusions, unconscious memories, etc). SUR005 I use my body just as I use my car, but I am not the same thing as my body. SUR006 Spirits of the dead sometimes speak to people, send us messages, or move objects, start fires, break glasses, and so on. SUR007 Belief in life after death is not just wishful thinking, but is a rational conclusion based on a sober assessment of objective, factual evidence. SUR008 Life after death will be unlike anything we can possibly imagine. BEL001 Faith is courageous and admirable. Agree Disagree Name____________________________________ BEL002 BEL003 BEL004 QUE005 QUE006 QUE007 QUE008 TRA001 TRA002 TRA003 TRA004 NAT005 NAT006 NAT007 NAT008 LIB001 LIB002 LIB003 LIB004 PAT005 PAT006 PAT007 PAT008 EGA001 EGA002 EGA003 EGA004 Reality is more complex and deeper than the human mind can ever comprehend, and yet we can have opinions about things we do not understand. I can separate the areas where I have faith from the areas where I look for evidence. I feel that some things are true, and that is good enough for me. The world is lawful and organized, and we can understand it. Choosing beliefs for no reason is just prejudice and wishful thinking masquerading as philosophy. A person who believes one thing on the basis of faith will soon believe other things on the basis of faith. Hoping that something is true does not make it true, and my choices cannot make God exist. The world is too vast, complex, and mysterious for us to understand completely. There are many reasons for us to believe in a divine Creator, who is eternal, allpowerful, and good. Human beings have a kinship with the Creator; essentially we are not animals but embodied spirits. There are many ways to reach an understanding of reality, the mind, and truth; science shows us only one limited aspect of truth. The spectacular progress of science during the past four hundred years shows that science is the best way to understand the world. To anyone who is willing to think, the existence of evil proves that there is no God. Human beings are intelligent animals, biological systems that are born and that cease to function. Believing things on the basis of faith is a dangerous practice, harmful to the individual believer and to society. Liberty means having the ability to act without interference from others. A life of servitude, a life without liberty, is not worth living. Almost all social goods, like security, prosperity, and equality of opportunity, are less important than liberty. Government can take away a person’s liberty, such as a criminal, only in order to secure other people’s liberty. We will never agree on how much freedom people should have, because we cannot know when a person has abused his or her liberty by harming someone else. Most people do not want much liberty; they would rather let experts, supervisors, and bureaucrats make important decisions about their lives. The highest social value is moral stability, and government must restrict liberty to encourage moral behavior. Government makes people’s lives better in many ways they aren’t even aware of. People are equal in the most important respects, and should be treated equally. If people had equal property, all the major problems in society—crime, poverty, class conflict, insecurity—would disappear. Real equality of opportunity requires much greater equality of condition than we have now. The question isn’t “Is Equality popular?” but “Is equality just and right?” Page 2 Name____________________________________ ELI005 ELI006 ELI007 ELI008 CAP001 CAP002 CAP003 CAP004 SOC005 SOC006 SOC007 SOC008 IND001 IND002 IND003 IND004 REL005 REL006 REL007 REL008 HED001 HED002 HED003 HED004 PLU005 Some people have the ability and the drive to achieve excellence in some field and others do not. We should be realistic enough to tell people when they are talented and when they are not. If the government encouraged people to do the jobs they can do well, everyone would benefit tremendously. People who are blessed with talent or intelligence will always be outnumbered by people who are average, and therefore elitism will always be an unpopular point of view. Justice means getting what one deserves. A person who contributes more to society deserves more rewards than a person who contributes less to society. The only fair way to determine how much a person has contributed to society is to let the people as a whole decide, through the free market. Justice is not the same as compassion, but if people believe society is just, they will behave compassionately. In capitalism decisions are made on the basis of monetary self-interest, not justice. In capitalism, the emotion of greed gradually overwhelms all other emotions, until the basic institutions of society are corrupted. It is essential to capitalism that it disguise its true nature, and so it works hard to make people believe it is morally neutral, or even just. People in capitalism want to be better than their neighbors, without any regard for justice. People are biologically similar, but in the most important matters—such as maturity, initiative, creativity, and drive—people are very different. At the most basic level, people are self-centered and competitive. Given our human nature, we all value liberty and independence, and resent restrictions on our actions. The only stable society, and therefore the best society, is one that allows us freedom to work and create, and rewards those who contribute to society. People are basically similar (the differences are relatively superficial compared with the similarities), and our social arrangements should recognize that fact. People are normally rational, cooperative, and friendly; only danger, threats, and desperate need make us behave otherwise. Everyone will benefit most in a society that promotes compromise, working together, respect, tolerance, and consideration of the common good. Unrestrained individualism and competition lead to conflict, resentment, injustice, and violence. The ultimate reason for living (and, finally, the only reason) is to achieve happiness, which is the same as pleasure. “Pleasure” is a broad term, which includes intellectual, social, and moral activities. What makes anything good is that is helps someone, and that means it gives someone pleasure. It is good to help others, but it is good because it is enjoyable, or because not helping others leads to guilt. Many people who think about values oversimplify matters. Page 3 Name____________________________________ PLU006 PLU007 PLU008 RLTV01 RLTV02 RLTV03 RLTV04 ABS005 ABS006 ABS007 ABS008 HUM001 HUM002 HUM003 HUM004 OBJ005 OBJ006 OBJ007 OBJ008 HDT001 HDT002 HDT003 HDT004 MLB005 MLB006 Ordinary people recognize both personal and social values and obviously believe many things besides pleasure are good. Values are objective features of the world that we pursue, not subjective feelings. Values are basic and ultimate; they cannot be explained, or reduced, to something more basic (such as pleasure). An action may be right in one society and wrong in another society. Moral rules and moral values are invented by a society, like the customs regulating clothing, meals, and property. Different societies can have different, irreconcilable values regarding basic aspects of life, such as preserving life, sexual relations, raising children, owning property, etc. There is no difference between what a society believes is right and what is right. The moral relativist cannot explain his or her position in a clear, coherent way. If you believe an action is morally wrong, then you should have the courage of your convictions and say the same action is wrong everywhere. The similarities among people around the world outweigh the differences; all people agree on basic moral judgments, even if they disagree about superficial styles and customs. A group cannot make an action morally right or wrong simply by saying it is right or wrong. Morality depends on human aims and desires; if people did not exist, nothing would be right or wrong. Being moral means promoting happiness, one’s own and others’. Moral beliefs and rules seem very serious and obligatory, but that is because they are backed up by the most solemn institutions of society. There is no doubt that morality is dependent upon society and its requirements; but it is difficult to determine whether all societies have the same requirements or different ones. Moral values are part of the objective world, built into the nature of things. Being moral means following unshakable principles, which are not just guidelines for achieving happiness. Human beings have a moral sense, or conscience, which makes us different from animals. The concept of happiness is so broad and vague that it cannot be the foundation of morality. I am a product of many factors that have made me what I am, and which continue to shape all of my behavior. The natural world is basically uniform and lawful, and I am a part of the natural world. My own personal impressions can be misleading, and if they conflict with the careful observations of many scientists, I should believe the scientists. A belief in determinism (that all of our behavior can be pre-determined) will lead us to search for the causes of behavior, which eventually will enable us to help people in many ways. I am in control of my own life. Human beings are not part of the natural world, but are different, set apart, precisely because we can choose how to live. Page 4 Name____________________________________ MLB007 MLB008 SDT009 SDT010 SDT011 SDT012 MAT001 MAT002 MAT003 MAT004 DUA005 DUA006 DUA007 DUA008 UNI001 UNI002 UNI003 UNI004 COM005 COM006 COM007 COM008 RED001 RED002 My inner experience of making a choice is proof enough that I am free, regardless of what scientists say happens elsewhere in the world. If people believe all their actions are determined, they will become irresponsible, or lose all their initiative, or sink into despair. The issue of free will depends on questions of meaning as much as it depends on questions of fact. My choices are made based solely upon my upbringing and my past experiences, but I am still free. Even though I must always act in accordance with my strongest desire, there is still a real sense in which I am free. Since free actions are those that are caused by one’s own thoughts and desires, rather than by external forces, we are normally free. The world is made up of physical objects, bodies in motion, and human beings are part of the world. There are no such things as ghosts, spirits, goblins, or “out of body” experiences. Science tells us what the world is made of, and science depends on observation and experimentation. The physical brain is complicated enough to think, feel, plan, imagine, remember, and do all the things a soul is supposed to do. Materialism is too simple; there is more to reality than physical objects. I am not the same thing as my body or brain; I am a spiritual being. I can know my own mind and self better than any external observer can. My thoughts, sensations, and emotions cannot be physical events inside of me; they are too different from physical events. The classification of things depends on our purposes; categories change with changing means of achieving our purposes. The only real differences between men and women are the ability to impregnate and give birth. With developments in reproductive technology, such as an artificial womb, the biological difference between men and women will become negligible. When the means of reproduction are available to anyone, classifications of people as “male” and “female” will decline, and classifications based on more important traits of personality will take their place. Identifying with the relatively absent father shapes boys’ personalities, and identifying with the nurturing mother shapes girls’ personalities. In general, men are more independent and less emotional than women, whereas women are more social and more sensitive than men. Men’s competitive and alienating nature has caused many problems in economics, society, and politics, and as women gain positions of power and apply their distinctive skills, we can look forward to progress. The psychological differences between men and women have influenced basic philosophical conceptions of the self, morality, and knowledge, since philosophy has been dominated by men. Human beings are made of the same stuff as everything else and follow the same laws as everything else. We can understand more and more of human behavior by learning about the physical and social causes that make each of us what we are. Page 5 Name____________________________________ RED003 RED004 SPI005 SPI006 SPI007 SPI008 INT001 INT002 INT003 INT004 PER005 PER006 PER007 PER008 EMP001 EMP002 EMP003 EMP004 RAT005 RAT006 RAT007 RAT008 FND001 FND002 FND003 FND004 The mind, or consciousness, is a natural phenomenon and we will eventually discover its laws of operation (perhaps by modeling the mind on a computer). Since humans are animals and obey similar laws, we probably have a drive to preserve ourselves and desire what benefits us. Human beings are not just nerves and muscle, not just objects; our consciousness sets us apart from the natural, physical world. People are so complex that we cannot generalize about them; every individual is unique. We can never completely understand a person. We choose our own behavior; it isn’t determined by anything, and therefore we should accept responsibility for it. Each individual is trapped in his or her perceptions. The order and structure we perceive in the world may be created by our own minds, and may not be present in the world itself. Most people have a very limited idea of what is possible. All our ideas and knowledge come to us through our sense organs; animals with different sense organs experience an entirely different world. It makes no sense to say everyone is mistaken and will always by mistaken; that is not how the word “mistaken” is used. It is absurd to say that we cannot know ordinary things around us like tables and chairs. If science or philosophy seems to overturn common sense, then so much the worse for science and philosophy. Some writers play tricks with words and create paradoxes, but careful analysis will uncover the tricks. Our minds (including our ideas and beliefs) are entirely products of our environments. We can put simple ideas and images together in many ways, but we cannot imagine anything whose parts were not first perceived. The difference between knowledge and mere opinion is that knowledge is based on sensory experience and opinion is not. Mathematical truths seem so certain because they are obvious and common. Mathematical truths depend on understanding with your mind (reason), not perceiving with your senses. Statements like “two and two are four” cannot be empirical, because everyone agrees about them, and they could not possibly be false. The mind is more than just a recorder and arranger of sensory input; it can give us deeper knowledge than that. Since we can know mathematics through reason, we can probably know other aspects of reality through reason as well. The difference between knowing something and only believing something is that you are certain about what you know, but you are not certain about what you believe. People say they know what they remember and what they see with their eyes because they feel certain about it. Knowledge must be justified, but the appeal to justification stops only when we reach the foundation of certainty. The real test of your knowledge is what you can feel sure of, not what other people say you know. Page 6 Name____________________________________ PRAG05 PRAG06 PRAG07 PRAG08 NTU001 NTU002 NTU003 NTU004 EXT005 EXT006 EXT007 EXT008 The proof that you know that a car has fuel is your ability to drive it, and generally the proof that you know something is your ability to apply it or use it to do something. Science is the best model of knowledge, and the test of scientific knowledge is experiment, correct prediction, and successful action. People can know how to do things as well as knowing that something is true. The theory that knowledge is power applies to more kinds of knowledge (like knowing people, knowing yourself) than the theory that knowledge is certainty. The difference between genuine knowledge and mere belief is the perception, or feeling, of certainty. We can know some things that we cannot communicate, even in principle. Knowledge is ultimately personal; what is knowledge or truth for one person may not be knowledge or truth for another. We know our own minds and inner experiences better than we know the external world, and knowledge of the world is built up from knowledge of our own experiences. Knowledge depends on an objective, practical standard, not feelings or personal “intuitions”. Knowledge is a social product, achieved in cooperation with others. If a person’s beliefs cannot be tested, explained, and shared with others, then they are almost certainly not real knowledge. If a person really knows something, then it is true and a fact for everyone. Page 7 Name____________________________________ Look for any assertion starting with these letters THE REC SUR BEL ATH CON TER QUE TRA NAT LIB ELI CAP PAT EGA SOC IND REL HED RLTV PLU ABS HUM OBJ HDT SDT MAT UNI MLB DUA COM RED SPI INT RAT FND PER EMP PRAG NTU EXT Mark a tally for each assertion with which you agree If you have three or more tally marks, mark the position as one with which you tend to agree Theist Reconciler Survivor Believer (Fideist) Atheist Contradictor Terminator Questioner (Evidentialist) Transcendentalist Naturalist Libertarian Elitist Capitalist Paternalist Egalitarian Socialist Individualist Relationalist Hedonist Relativist Pluralist Absolutist Humanist Objectivist Hard Determinist Soft Determinist Materialist Unifier Metaphysical Libertarian Dualist Complementer Reductionist Spiritualist Internalist Rationalist Foundationalist Perceiver Empiricist Pragmatist Intutionist Externalist Page 8 Mark a tally for each position with which you agree Use this column to check for inconsistency Transcendentalist Naturalist Individualist Relationalist Humanist Objectivist Reductionist Spiritualist Intuitionist Externalist