If evolution is true, and there is no God, how can I trust that my own thoughts are guided toward truth?

Question

If there is no guiding force outside the drive to survive and reproduce, what confidence can I have that even my own thoughts are not the product of the survival/reproduction drive?

Ex. A caveman has a belief that sabertooth tigers are friendly and that the appropriate display of friendship is to run away and hide. His belief seems to be false, but his behavior would produce survival.

There are many more belief-behavior pairs possible, and it seems to me that if evolution is true and there is no God who is guiding our minds toward truth, then we should remain agnostic about the truth of our beliefs, including the belief that evolution is true.

Thoughts?

I appreciate all those who have answered. I'm amazed at the effieciency of this worldwide forum. Please allow me to clarify the question.

I am not asking whether or not evolution is true, or whether or not there is a God. Regardless of my beliefs, those are the presuppositions I've made in posing the question. I'm asking the reader to assume those are true, and then attempt to come up with a way in which I can understand my own thoughts, and how they might possibly be guided toward truth. The debate about the truth of evolution and the existence of God are beyond the scope of my question. Please direct those comments, although interesting, to the appropriate questions.

Answers to some of my other questions may reveal more about my personal beliefs, but they play little part in this question.

I appreciate all your responses. I am a math major and so I, thankfully, understood the math teacher's comments. I think she is on the correct track. My hope with this question was to point out that each one of us has philosophical presuppositions that may or may not turn out to correspond well to reality, and correlate well with our other beliefs.

My claim behind the question is that holding Natrualism (evolution without God) to be true may very well result in abondoning any sort of rational view of the truth of our beliefs. Grounding our beliefs in blind evolution seems a dangerous proposal indeed, leading to absolute relativism (if there can be such a thing).

If I am correct, then no one can claim, in an epistemically justifiable fashion, that there is no God and that evolution is true. This seems interesting to me regarding the debate about intelligent design. There are really people out there claiming, "I'm not intelligently designed, and I can prove it."

Answer 1

Your question, "How can I trust that my own thoughts are guided toward truth," is predicated by a condition... an "if" statement. Isn't that the way it is with everything, when it comes right down to it?

Forgive my math-teacherness here, but everything begins with faith. Those who choose to believe in whatever version of a higher power begin with an unprovable premise, that the higher power of one's choosing exists. (That's called a postulate or an axiom.) Everything else they do comes after accepting that leap of faith.

This is true of atheists and agnostics, as well. The rigid scientist begins all thought with certain unprovable premises. They believe in mathematical postulates that are accepted on faith, and everything they think afterward is derived from this leap of faith.

When Bolyai and Lobachevsky rocked the mathematical world, overturning Euclid's fifth, there was a huge upheaval in higher maths, the result of which has been more strict mathematical proofs, resulting in advances in physics and the other sciences.

It's a matter of choice. Do you believe in the Euclidean axioms, or those of Riemann and others? You can choose more wisely based on the world which you're trying to describe... that of planes, spheres, or pseudo (or hyperbolic) spheres. The geometries of all three are valid, but they do contradict one another. Truth is based on the choice of what premise one begins his or her thought processes.

So, how can you trust that your own thoughts are guided toward truth? Ask yourself this: "Are my thoughts contradictory?" If they're not, then you are indeed guided toward truth. Mind you, others who begin with different axiom systems in their lives may not accept your truth, but you needn't accept their conclusions because of that very difference in premise.

Answer 2

While I tend to agree with your position, albeit presented in reverse logic [apart from reverse psychology], let us go forward and muddle the issue even further as we are wont to do --if only to be a devil's advocate for a second or two here.

Fast forward to our apparently intelligent mindsets of today, man having survived the the predatory saber-tooth encounters.

Ex: A suburbanite has a belief that churches are friendly and that the appropriate display of friendship is to attend weekly service and rituals. His belief seems to be true, but his behavior would produce destruction.

We know that Man's knowledge has evolved in leaps and bounds since the days of the saber-tooth tiger. Given that, and there IS a God who is guiding our minds against false prophets, then should we remain faithful about the falsehoods of our beliefs, including the belief that the doctrines of the church we belong to is false?

Can you trust that your own thoughts are still guided? By whom, and which way is it guided now? Think about that.

Peace be with you!

Answer 3

Do you trust that your own thoughts are being guided toward truth now? Are all your thoughts guided by an external force or source? What about free will in that case?

Wouldn't you have to be responsible for where you thoughts are directed?

Evolution does not deny the existence of a God or Gods. Most people who believe in the scientrific truth of evolution are, in fact, not only monotheists, but Christians.

Answer 4

What do you believe? Not what do you think? The scientific method is based on facts (an observation of two or more person).

You see the world around you? Is this all there is? When you die, are you just dead? Or is there something more?

There are a number of religions, but I will focus on the Christian message: Jesus died, God raised Jesus (we now have hope for eternal life), and Jesus will come again. We have four witness to Jesus dying and his resurrection (the Gospels), and they expected him to return.

The Christian bible is not a conversion manual but a collection of books written by prophets inspired but God. It assumes (not proves) the existence of God. It tells that man fails (sins), it tells that God promises, and finally it tells how God keeps his promises.

So how does this answers your question? Belief, specifically your belief is an answer. Your question (details) states the scientific method (what we know or think we know about the world) to support a belief? Is that your belief? Or do you believe something different.

Answer 5

Your thoughts are guided by the desire to survive. If this was not true we would not be here. We need to have good "tribal behavior" for for the good of all ... if this was not true we would not be here. How does a baby know how to nurse? Why do we have a natural fear of insects? Why do you get goose bumps that make your hair stand up and make you look more aggressive? Oh ... you have no more body hair oops evolution working there.

Answer 6

If you really want to know about evolution vs creation, go to sidroth.org and wayof themaster.org and crm.org and lwf.org. These websites have material you can order and you can also ask these questions to experienced, well educated, godly men and/or women right online. Please do it today and do it right away. Your eternal salvation is the most important thing in the world! Don't let society or Hollywood or anything else corrupt your thinking. If you REALLY want the truth, this is the right thing to do. Jesus will never let you down.

Answer 7

well, i guess this is where the phrase "believe in yourself" originates from. and i guess it would help if you read all those philosophical books and stuff. and about the caveman stuff. sure, people make mistakes. but i think thats a little extreme althought it COULD have happened previously. but now, as we are more evolved, we are also more intelligent, analytical and can do research on stuff. thats the developers job, to analyse every possible outcomes and stuff.

sorry if that seemed like crap, yeah? hope it helped.

Answer 8

Our minds are made up of cells and electrical impulses. We think because our brains evolved to the point to allow us to. Instinct for survival is at the core of evolution. If the cavemen had sat there and let the Sabertooth maul them, we wouldn't be here.

Answer 9

because either way we still have free will, so subcounciously(sp?)if you focus on good, your thoughts will be routed towards good. BUt you don't havwe to wory bacause both God and evolution exhist. stop taking the bible literally people. it's meteforical. and how do we know how long God's day is anyway? Did we ask him? no! the romans made a calender naming the months after numbers, which they actually stoloe from arabic, then they added two months to it for trhere precious war mongering ceasars.

Answer 10

There is a God. The God of the Holy Bible. Pray that the Holy Spirit will reveal the truth to you. The Holy Bible promisies that the Holy Spirit will lead you into all Truth.

The Christian life is the simplest life to live on earth. It is the life of a child simply walking in complete trust in a Heavenly Father who will provide all his needs according to His riches in glory. We do not have all the rules and burdens of other ways of life but only one rule; “Come unto Me.” Where the world thinks that things must be analyzed and broken down so that they can be understood, dissected so that weaknesses can be determined and solutions arrived at, disciplines set up and programs followed, Jesus simply says, “Come unto Me”. Are you having problems in your family relationships? Jesus says, “Come unto Me.” Are you having problems with sin? “Come unto Me”. Do you need something? “ Come unto Me”. What a simple and glorious way of life!. And will God correct and remove all the problems and difficulties? Not necessarily but He will “give you rest” in the midst of it all. That is the Christian life.