How can science prove the reliability of the senses...?

Question

...without using logic gather by the senses. This IS circular reasoning, a sheepish form of logic held by many Christians.

How do atheists live with their lack of understanding about reality? By faith? Do they just ignore the fallacies in empiricism? I don't understand, please explain this to me.

funaholic- you would arrive at that conclusion with memory

Can you prove your memory is reliable without using your memory?

More circular reasoning won't help.

Answer 1

Correct, there is no proof for anything.

I am comfortable with my luck of understanding. The lack of knowledge is the beginning of wisdom. I have no need to fill up the gap in my knowledge with the less credible gap of knowledge that is organised religion.

Answer 2

There are three things I hold as valid, but I do not consider them 'true'. In fact, because they are axiomic, that means they cannot be proven. They are simply the rules of the game, as it were:

1. Mathematics and logic are valid. Truth is an inherantly logical proposition. Without logic, the truth-value of any fact could never be known, there would be no way to distinguish between a true fact and a false fact. Without logic, knowledge would be unattainable.

2. Observations, unaided and aided, are valid. However, aided observations must be supported by prior observations and mathematics. For example, before the theory of optics was discovered, a microscope would have been invalid; but through study of unaided observations of lenses and beams of light, the theory of optics was mathematically formulated, so the microscope is valid. A crystal gazing ball is still invalid, but if a way to define the effect mathematically and in a way that could be verified with unaided observations was found, it would become valid as well. Without being able to trust our observations, we could aquire no data on which to operate, and thus knowledge would be unattainable.

3. The supernatural, if it exists (note: no statement is made of its existence or non-existence, just a conditional), does not in any way interact with the natural world. If a supernatural involvement can be had, then nothing can be assured as true. If the deity that oversees gravity decides to change the universal gravitational constant, for example, all things we know will suddenly be invalid, and thus knowledge could not be attained.

It is important to recognize that none of these things is considered true; they are axioms. An axiom is a statement that must be accepted or not accepted on its own merits. However, as each of them can be shown to be necessary for knowledge, one must either accept these three things, or, one must accept that nothing at all can be known, let alone known to be true or false. So these axioms must be 'accepted' or 'held' to attain knowledge, even though their axiomic nature means they themselves cannot be proven.

Answer 3

Well the consistency of the senses between different people proves that they are in fact reliable.

Answer 4

Try the science section if you are looking for scientific answers..

Here we can tell you:
It's the holy spirit, god moves in mysterious ways, god did it.

Ramen !