Andrew Ralls Woodward - Adventure in Human Knowledges and Beliefs

Hamilton Books

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Rowman & Littlefield

Lanham Boulder New York Toronto Plymouth, UK

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To

My friends of all ages,

who I met in my early 20s,

in Canada, Switzerland, and Israel

We might call ourselves atheist, theist or agnostic.

However, in the grand scheme of things, we all share one thing:

we share human knowledges and beliefs.

A. Woodward,

Leader of Adventure in Human Knowledges and Beliefs

Thisbook isnt meant to be a complicated book, but rather a concise and useful book. If learning isnt useful it doesnt really have a purpose. The idea for this book came while I was doing the coursework in my doctorate at the University of Toronto. I was thinking about my dissertation project which involves the philosophy of science as a model for religious knowledge. I read many different bookspopular and academicon the relationship between science and religion. None of the books really dealt with the philosophical questions of knowledge and belief in a way that was accessible to a wide audience of readers. Sure, the academic books covered epistemology (the formofknowledge) but those books were not meant for a wide audience, and the popular books were just missing some really important philosophical content. My hope is that this book will help to fill a gap in this area, providing an opportunity for everyone to learn about the mysteries of human knowledges and beliefs. I have, of course, relied on the scholarly works of 20th and 21st century authors as my sources, and you will find references to those people throughout. Part of my aim was to capture the pivotal themes of their works, so that after you finish reading this book you will have a good sense of the philosophical landscape of science and religion.

My professors in Toronto have been the greatest academic mentors and my confidence as a student grew steadily under their watch. Thank you to Professor Donald Wiebe who read my manuscript and who gave me advice and encouragement along the way. Thanks to Trinity College in the University of Toronto, where as a Junior Fellow I had the freedom to transition from engineering and theological studies toward a doctorate in the philosophy of science and religion. Thank you to my mom and dad, my brother, and my Woodward aunts and uncles, who were always there for a phone call or e-mail while I completed my degrees and who supported me in various ways as I made the academic jump from engineering to the liberal arts.

Finally I am greatly indebted to the knowledge and belief experiences I had in my early 20s and to the people who helped to shape those experiences. My undergraduate degree in engineering chemistry provided me with exposure to the lives of scientific and engineering people. My work as a school chaplain in a high school and my work as a preacher in a small town church gave me exposure to the lives of people who were interested in having a faith. A university course I took in Tel Aviv gave me some familiarity with the Middle East. The middle school students, who stayed at a school in Switzerland where I worked, asked me some very tough but intriguing questions about belief. I worked in Toronto as a teaching assistant for a university course on science and religion and taught some lectures about a possible compatibility system between knowledge and belief communities. Most of the practical experience I bring to this book arose from these events. I would like all of you who were with me at those places (you know who you are!) to understand that you all had important roles to play as I wrote this bookyou all taught me something and for that I am grateful.

Knowledges and beliefs have existed since the time our human species Homosapiens first walked the earth. Although we may think we already know what knowledges or beliefs are, to get to the heart of our adventure we really must go back to the beginningback to what is happening at the core of claiming knowledges and beliefs. I invite you to participate in this adventureyou, I, and all the readers of this book. There are only two conditions. These conditions are necessary for us to fully enjoy the experience of this adventure and to learn and grow along the way. The conditions are as follows:

1. We must be willing to let go of whatever rigidness prevents us from taking a neutral, dispassionate, and unbiased look at our own world views whether they be a science or a religion. I mean that. Make a conscious effort right now to drop whatever it is that keeps you from re-adjusting or re-evaluating your own knowledges and beliefs. I am not asking you to discard whatever you think (in the end, you probably wont need to) but we do need to be open to considering alternative world views. A world view is the lens through which you see the worldyour own personal opinion on any issue, the language you speak, the job you have, or the things you do for fun on the weekend. Any of these factors might contribute to your world view. Your world view also includes your knowledges and beliefs.

2. We must be willing to become adjudicators. You will be your own adjudicator, I will be my own adjudicator, and everyone else reading this book will be their own adjudicators. An adjudicator is a person who has to choose a single option from many options. Other descriptions for adjudicator might be judge or decision maker. The best analogy for an adjudicator that I can think of is when we go grocery shopping. Weve all done this. We stand in an aislelets say the pasta aisle as an exampleand we look at all the various types of spaghetti sauce that are available for us to choose from. Generally, we end up choosing only one type of sauce, because that is all that we need, but, in the process of thinking about which type of sauce to choose, we were acting as adjudicators (or judges or decision makers). This book is about being a special kind of adjudicator (nothing to do with spaghetti, of course!) who judges the acceptability of knowledges and beliefs. Ill let you discover for yourself the exact role of being this kind of adjudicator and what all of this means as we journey through our adventure.

If you are unsure of what I mean by any of the words mentioned above, that is fine, because I will explain all and all will become clear. In fact, as the leader of this adventure, I consider it my own responsibility to make sure that no one is left trailing behind. (There was a time when I did not know what all of these words meant either.) For now, the two conditions I have just mentioned can really be put more simply as: i) While reading this book, keep an open mind, and ii) Dont be afraid to trust your own instincts. Also, as we move along, I will do my best to explain any strange sounding words as they come up. However, in the event that you require an explanation before I get to providing one in the text, you will find at the end a glossary, which provides a concise explanation for each strange sounding word in this book. I think the glossary should help alleviate any potential complications for vocabulary.