The Breakdown of Philosophy and Science

Three lines of thought have to be followed:

1.                  Philosophy

2.                  Science

3.                  Religion

The Enlightenment began to tear away the infinite reference point for morals, value, existence, and purpose.

Without a reference point, everything becomes relative.

Philosophy

1.      From the Greeks on taught that people are rational, they can begin with themselves and think anything out.

2.      They believed in reason  a=a  a does not = non-a

3.      They were optimistic

 Three Shifts occurred:

1.                  Science

a.       Thought went from an open system of cause and effect to a closed

b.      God was pushed further and further out

c.       Charles Lyell…the only forces in the past are the ones we see today.  

d.      Darwin continued to build on this

      Simple to complex

            Survival of the fittest

e.       Materialism

f.        Both God and people are dead, mere chemicals

g.       Everything happens by chance

h.      Social Darwinism

i.         Nazism

2.                  Philosophy

a.       Rousseau

                                                                           i.      Human nature, if allowed to be natural, is good

                                                                         ii.      The individual triumphs over society

b.      Kant

                                                                           i.      Reason is accessible

                                                                         ii.      Meaning is beyond reason

c.       Hegel

                                                                           i.      Truth is a synthesis

                                                                         ii.      Truth evolves

d.      Kierkegaard

                                                                           i.      Faith is a blind leap