Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] My Birdbrain View of Agnosticism by Bart D. Ehrman Read by John Paul Middlesworth Yesterday I shared one of the thoughts that crept into and dominated my mind for a few minutes while watching a glorious sunrise from the comforts of a nice chair in front of a big window while drinking a cup of coffee.
[00:00:21] Here now is my second we have some bird feeders out on the deck, and I was watching not only the dawning of the day, but also the birds coming out to break their fast.
[00:00:32] Chickadees, titmouses, and juncos. For the most part, they love the seed.
[00:00:37] And it occurred to me these birds have no idea of my existence. If I move toward them, they would instinctively fly away. So they do recognize the reality of threat.
[00:00:48] But do they understand that I'm a human? That I have a mind with thoughts and organs and limbs that make me function? That I have the abilities to analyze and reason, that I have a career and possessions? That I think about? Lots of issues, both academic and quotidian. Do they have any conception at all of what or who I really am?
[00:01:09] Nope, not a chance. They can't even be reflective about their own existence.
[00:01:15] But that made me think.
[00:01:17] If we rank living beings according to levels of comprehension and abilities to reason and make sense of the world, I'm not saying we should, but if we do, then I suppose these birds would rank somewhere above slugs and somewhere below humans.
[00:01:32] Since they are massively below us in cognitive abilities, they can't even recognize who we are and cannot reason their way into our existence.
[00:01:41] But on reflection, since that's the case, why should I as a human think I'm the greatest intelligence in the universe? Apart from the human arrogance seemingly built into us that we are the pinnacle of all existence, and the scientific claim that our human brain is, so far as we can tell, the most sophisticated and complex organic entity in the known cosmos.
[00:02:01] But note, so far as we can tell and known cosmos Suppose as a thought experiment, we imagine there were a higher order of intelligence in the world.
[00:02:13] Why should we think we could know it exists and is superior to us and to describe it in terms of what it really is?
[00:02:21] Any more than that Junco, going for the seed, can understand and describe me.
[00:02:26] We too would have relative bird brains and we'd have no way of knowing it.
[00:02:32] So maybe the material world is not all there is. If it is not, I'd have no way of knowing. And if it is, again, I'd have no way of knowing.
[00:02:42] That's ultimately why I'm an agnostic. I don't know and I can't know.
[00:02:48] This is decidedly not an argument for the existence of God, or at least the God or Gods of the Bible or of any religion.
[00:02:56] I really do not believe the God of the Bible exists, the Almighty Creator and Redeemer of all that is.
[00:03:03] I have reasons for believing that, but I've already talked about them on the blog on various occasions.
[00:03:08] My point here is simply that agnosticism seems to me the only option for me.
[00:03:15] Even though I don't think the God described traditionally in any of the monotheistic religions exists or or the many gods of the other religions, how can I possibly know there is not some other kind of superior being or beings in the universe?
[00:03:29] I have no way of knowing, and neither does anyone else.
[00:03:33] If such a being or beings does exist, we with our bird brains would never be able to know anything about it them.
[00:03:42] This should not bring us comfort in thinking, oh, so maybe there is a benevolent force looking over us.
[00:03:49] If it were to exist, of course, one option may be that it is a benevolent force, but assuming it would care about us or be benevolent toward us if it did is precisely the kind of thing we could never know.
[00:04:02] Agnosticism, in part, is humility in the face of the universe rather than claiming to know what we don't.
[00:04:10] But it is also, in my view, the only view that makes epistemological sense.
[00:04:16] Sometimes it's just better to admit what we don't know because we can't possibly know.
