Faith and/in reason (delete as appropriate)

I had a nightmare journey home last Thursday, but I made the good decision to check the paper shop before heading to the station. I ended up buying a magazine I very rarely buy, the last time being at least 15-20 years ago: it was The New Scientist. I was drawn to an article or series of articles headlined as “What's wrong with reason?”. It had a heading of “seven reasons why people hate reason” inside and included Archbishop Rowan Williams as a contributor so there would be at least some non-anti-religious opinion.

This did indeed prove to be a very interesting read for the 3 hours it took to make my 20 minute journey. It was a recognition that people are steering away to some degree from science & reason and some of the reasons why. There were several honest scientists who admit that there is much wrong with “science” as it's seen by the public and the wrong done, that reason was not always reasonable and is far more limited than the early founders of the Enlightenment would have you believe. That there were & maybe still are extremes of “rationality” that are at least as extreme as any religious bigotry.

Rowan Williams said that “There was a constant risk of slipping into the conclusion... that the unreasonable human didn't count”. That this may have helped contribute toward attitudes that allowed slavery in America and post-revolution France. There needs to be something outside of “instrumental reason” to an older/pre modern rationality which puts “reasonable” into the context of community.

Another Contributor, Neuroscientist Colin Frith, put forward the idea that no-one really uses reason. Most of our computing is made sub-consciously and we then use reason to justify our decisions rather than guide them. Sociologist David Miller showed how science was abused by governments and corporations, leading to more scepticism – his article really was enlightening!

This all fits into much of what I have long thought. That Science can easily become religion, that atheism is a faith (you cannot prove God doesn't exist any more than I can prove He does) and that reason is not always reasonable. The 7th article was by philosopher Mary Midgley and was titled “Reason's just another faith”. She spoke of “scientism” as well as science – that many plausible theories are accepted as fact without absolute proof and that some believe that science can answer everything: “Science then no longer stands for enquiry but for ideology, authority, a general approach to life which demands to prevail in all conflicts: that is, it is turned into scientism.”

“The central question” she says “is about trust. In what do you put your faith?” - indeed.

Me & the puffins

Those that know me will know that I have a liking for puffins. For watching / looking at puffins, not eating them as they don't taste that good (yes, I really have tried).

Anyhow, I've wondered for a while if there was any particular reason why and having recently returned from a puffin watching holiday, I think I've remembered at least some of the reasons. I see some areas of similarity between me & the puffin, as well as some areas of difference.

Have you ever watched a puffin take of or land? Not for them the graceful flight or powerful soaring of eagles. Take-off's appear to resemble throwing yourself off the edge of the cliff and then flapping for all you're worth. Landing appears to be stopping yourself by sticking your feet out as you hit the nearest rock or entering your burrow bottom-first. No grace, no obvious display of power or majestic swooping. The apparent throw yourself off the cliff, flap like fury to fly, land by hitting something solid to land technique quite clearly ought not to work. They're often called the clowns of the air and it's easy to see why.

I guess the reason I can associate with this is that I often feel like I'm flapping furiously, lacking graceful majesty or obvious power. As I spent an extraordinary length of time (and vast amounts of film) observing my comical friends a few years ago on the Treshnish Isles, off Mull, it occurred to me that these creatures really don't appear to belong in the sky. They just look so out of place.

I often feel as though I'm a bit of a fraud. Somehow, I do the equivalent of throwing myself off the cliff, landing by hitting solid ground, flapping like whatever in between and somehow getting away with it. I don't deserve to be where I am now. I ought to have failed far more spectacularly. I see the many greater people around, many of them good friends, and I see more eagle-like soaring and I assume (rightly or wrongly) through their greater ability or competence. Then I look at the good stuff, where I have succeeded or at least got away with it, and I wonder how on earth I've done as well as I have.

If I'm being realistic, I guess that my image of others soaring eagle-like may actually be less realistic than I imagine. But that shouldn't stop me trying. I may not be an eagle, but I could be a better puffin.