Hume

Hume soon realized that some fallacies that were rampant in the ancient world -- such as relying on hypotheses based on speculation and invention, rather than rexperience and observation -- were also to be found among his contemporaries. Hume believed that our knowledge of reality is based on our experience, and for better or worse, on the axioms we choose. Adioms are statements that seem so evident or well-established that they are acepted without controversy or question and are simply asserted without proof. To put it simply, an axiom is a fundamentally un-provable assumption or an opinion. The problem with bashing knowledge on an axiom is that then what one concludes about realith is dependent on the axioms one chooses. As Duke physicist Robert Brown warns, “There is nothing more dangerous or powerful in the philosophical process than selecting one’s axioms. . . There is nothing more useless than engaging in philosophical, religious, or social debate with another person whose axioms differ significantly from one’s own” ~ Page 38

Naturalism comes in many varieties, but the entry-level union card -- David Hume is our hero -- expresses solidarity with this motto: “Just say no to the supernatural.” Rebirths, hevens, hells, creator gods, teams of gods, village demons, miracles, divine retributions in the form of plagues, earthquakes, tsunamis are things naturalists don’t believe in. What there is and all there is, natural stuff, and everything that happens has some set of natural causes that produce it -- although we may not be able to figure out what these causes are or were. Why be a naturalist? World historical evidence suggests that naturalism, vague s it is, keeps being vindicated, while the zones “explained’ by the supernatural get smaller everyday. Naturalism is a good bet. ~ Page 2