66 Chapter 5
ONE MODERN PESSIMISM
So, according to Mr. Minsky:
a. When we do science, it shows us decisively that we are lying to
ourselves about the existence of free will.
b. However, we must lie to ourselves about the existence of free will,
c. so that we do not despair, or kill ourselves or each other,
a. So that we can do more science, which will show us even more
decisively that we are lying to ourselves about the existence of free
will.
b. However, we must lie to ourselves about the existence of free will,
c. so that we do not despair, or kill ourselves or each other,
a. So that we can do more science, which will show us even more
decisively that we are lying to ourselves about the existence of free
will.
b. However, . . . .(and so on, forever)
1
This must be part of what it means to be fallen: when Man is at his
best, when he is as bright and as brave as he will ever get, he sees his
choices reduce to two: total paralysis and despair, or lying to himself
about reality in order just to get through the day.
However, it is crucially important for readers of this book to
understand that the non-existence of free will is indeed what Man
logically concludes when he is at his bravest and brightest. A mere
dismissal of Mr. Minsky's analysis is in the end a denial of all that is
brave and bright in Man.
It is -- at best -- an appeal to "what holes?" or "why bother?"
Catholicism.
1. Fr. Keefe does not quote Mr. Minsky, nor
analyze his book. This is another of my own
examples. I think it a classic and yet highly
modern, very sophisticated, representation
of "dehistoricized cosmology." However, be
warned: in a little while I am going to use
this example to take you to places I am
almost certain you do not want to go.
At worst, it is the Galileo mistake -- a 'religious' refusal to permit
scientists to reach the correct conclusion.
Readers of this book might by this point understand that the
progressive disappearance of Mr. Minsky's middle box is pre-ordained
within any dehistoricized cosmology. In fact, no scientific argument at
all is necessary to get Mr. Minsky's middle box to vanish. Once the
world is divided into the necessary and the arbitrary, into Cause and
Chance, no third alternative exists, as Mr. Minsky not only says but
also demonstrates very eloquently. Whatever does not belong either to
Cause or to Chance -- "freedom of will" or anything else -- must
vanish.
[ Cause ]
[ ]
[ Chance ]
Secondly, since Catholic theology both modern and traditional
accepts some form of time-less truth, some 'place' outside the Eucharist
one stands to understand -- in other words, since it also accepts some
N.B. This is an html-ized copy of a page from the pdf file, The Knucklehead's Guide to Covenantal Theology.