SCIENCE AND FAITH: What About Closed Minds on Both Sides?
You know the type, the individual who is so totally convinced that he is unimpeachably right about something that there is nothing you can say that would prompt him to reconsider his opinion about a controversy or position on a public policy issue, or any other question for that matter.
Screenshot from YouTube.
The conventional wisdom in the media typically associates such a person with the stereotypical evangelical or fundamentalist Christian who proclaims something like “God said it, I believe it, and that settles it.”
Stubborn Incredulity vs Logic:
Such a perspective is indeed close-minded, but is the stereotype an accurate illustration of reality?
No, it’s not because it ignores the same closed minds when they appear among philosophers who remain familiar to some today like David Hume and modern advocates, such as devotees of the New Atheism, who refuse to consider evidence for miracles simply because it is evidence for something they assume to be impossible.
In the following video from Is Jesus Alive?, Dr. Tim McGrew presents portraits of Hume and others like him from the modern era that you likely have not previously heard or seen:
Dr. Tim McGrew is Professor of Philosophy, and Chair of the Department of Philosophy at Western Michigan University. His research interests include Epistemology, the History and Philosophy of Science, and Philosophy of Religion. He is a specialist in the philosophical applications of probability theory.