Jack Preston King
Jul 21, 2017 · 2 min read

Why do you think I know what I believe?

Ok, this is one thing you stated clearly earlier on:

Ravens don’t say they are using the scientific method.

But they do:

My attitude is that every smart thing any creature does is a way of accessing objective reality. And that is all science is: observing natural processes in a way that allows you to repeat them and control them. Everything does that on some level.

Unless I’m reading that wrong, you are saying that every smart thing any creature does is science. Accessing objective reality is science. Not just humans, any creature (exact quote). This is why I think I know what you believe. You have typed the words, right there in your response.

To my mind, reading those words, it sounds very much as if your are equating intelligence and science, as if they are synonymous terms. Is that a misreading of what you have said here?

If that’s what you’re saying, this question naturally follows:

If science = intelligence, and intelligence is innate (even ravens demonstrate it, it is endowed on every smart creature by nature), then what on earth do we need science for? More to the point, why is there even a domain of human activity we label “science?” If science is simply the act of making one’s way intelligently through the world, and even the birds and bees do it, how is “science” different from simply “living wisely?”

My larger point being that if you broaden the definition of “science” to the point where it has no distinguishable meaning — “Everything is science!” then you have done essentially the same thing Pantheism does with God. “You want me to show you God? There he is! Everywhere! I’m God, You’re God, the tree is God! Even the raven is God! Every smart thing any creature does is God!

That’s what I mean by having a religious relationship to science, one dimension of the meaning, anyway.

So if none of this is what you mean by science, what do you mean by science?

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    Jack Preston King

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    Author, poet, philosopher. JackPrestonKing.com. Facebook.com/authorjackprestonking. Twitter.com/JackPrestonKing