today rely solely on religion for medical treatment. Members of the Church of Christ, Scientist insist on spiritual healing instead of medical treatment, but their numbers are small and shrinking. Priests, ministers, rabbis, and Muslim imams consult doctors rather than merely relying on the power of divine intervention to cure their maladies. Of course, religious leaders also advocate prayer, but experiments have found that heart patients do not benefit from prayers for their recovery. Hence we have good reason to prefer evidence-based medicine over faith-based medicine. Evidence-based medicine is not always easy. As I mentioned, it is often difficult to conduct the kinds of carefully controlled clinical trials that are most useful for determining the efficacy of medical treatments. Another worry is that many trials are conducted by pharmaceutical companies with a strong financial interest in showing that their own drugs are effective, raising difficult issues about bias arising from motivated inference. It is dismaying but not surprising that published tests are more likely to support the effectiveness of a drug if they are conducted by the company that sells it. American drug companies spend more money on marketing than they do on research and development. Hence it is no simple matter, institutionally or individually, to practice evidence-based medicine, but its advantages over faith-based medicine for patient health remain indisputable. Similarly, the advantages of evidence over faith in the pursuit of physics, chemistry, and biology are easily documented. Chapter 3 will argue for an evidence-based approach to psychology as well. Medicine provides a telling example of the superiority of evidence over faith as a road to knowledge, but it would be good to have a more general argument that using evidence to make inferences to the best explanation is a method that reliably leads to true conclusions. There are often cases in everyday life and in science where evidence and inference lead us astray. Sometimes we fail to understand other people
because we reach false conclusions about their mental states. In medicine many theories have turned out to be false even though they seemed to be the best explanation available at the time. The Hippocratic theory that diseases are caused by imbalances in the four humors of blood, phlegm, and yellow and black bile dominated medicine for two thousand years, and more recently accepted theories such as the association of stomach ulcers with stress have been overturned. Physics and chemistry have also had dominant explanatory theories that are now rejected, such as the views that light moves through an invisible medium called the ether, and that combustion occurs because burning objects emit a firelike substance called phlogiston. If evidence-based thinking using inference to the best explanation is so unreliable, maybe it really isn't much better than faithbased thinking. The fact that inference to the best explanation of evidence can go astray is no reason to reject it, as long as it often gets things right and there is no alternative method that has a better record of achieving important truths and avoiding errors. I have already argued on the basis of technological successes that we have good reason to believe that the kind of evidence-based inference used in science does often achieve at least approximate truth; Chapter 4 contains a fuller argument that science attains at least approximate knowledge about reality. In medicine we can point to the fact that the life expectancy of human beings is now double what it was two centuries ago, a testament to the truth of the germ theory of disease as providing ways of preventing and treating infectious diseases. The cases where accepted theories have been overturned point to a strength rather than a weakness of evidence-based thinking, which can progress by acquiring new evidence and developing new theories that explain it. Faith-based thinking has no such motivation to improve on what has already been laid down by sacred texts. In contrast, science thrives on belief revision and theory improvement
spurred by experimental advances. Hence medical theory and practice should be based on evidence rather than faith. Evidence, Truth, and God It might be possible, however, to use evidence to support faith-based thinking. This support could come in either of two ways, through the use of evidence to justify claims for the existence of God or through the provision of evidence that faith-based thinking at least makes people happier than does evidence-based thinking. Some philosophers and scientists have thought that the existence of God does not have to be a matter of faith but rather can be justified on the basis of evidence. The two most compelling arguments for divine existence offer explanations of the origin and design of the universe. According to the cosmological argument, the world must have had a cause, which we can identify with God. Although this argument can be put in deductive form, it is most defensible when stated as an inference to the best explanation, with the hypothesis that God created the universe providing an explanation of how the universe began. Similarly, the argument from design is most convincing as a claim that the complexity of the biological world is the result of an intelligent designer who created all forms of life. Although these two arguments are usually treated separately, they have greatest force when combined into one big coherent inference to the best explanation. We should conclude that God exists because that supposition provides the best explanation of both the existence and the complexity of the universe. This argument does not justify any particular religion, since it does not establish whether the god that is supposed to have created the world is Islam's Allah or the Catholic Trinity or the ancient Greeks' Zeus. But it would provide a basis for saying that there is some creator. Unfortunately for the theist, this mega-argument for God's existence fails because science provides alternative, competing explanations. Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection was momentous
because it furnished a strong alternative explanation of biological complexity, one that has become all the more successful because of the development of allied theories of genetics and molecular biology. Understanding of proteins, genes, and ecological populations meshes with Darwin's basic insight to provide explanations of biological changes that are far more detailed and more fully supported by evidence than is the alternative theory of intelligent design. Scientific cosmology has found experimental support for the big bang theory that the universe began about fourteen billion years ago with an explosive expansion that continues today. This theory explains evidence that galaxies are becoming more distant, that there is microwave background radiation, and that the relative proportion of light elements in the universe is what early expansion would have produced. Where the big bang came from remains speculative, but recent work in string theory suggests a possible explanation in terms of the operations of space-time objects called “branes” (see Chapter 10 for further discussion). Even without that additional theory, the combination of biological evolution and big bang cosmology possesses far more explanatory power than does the hypothesis of divine creation. Modern evolutionary theory, including molecular biology and genetics in addition to natural selection, can explain a vast array of facts about the nature and development of organisms. Cosmology and allied areas of physics explain in detail a great many facts about the nature and history of the universe. Hence defenders of religious belief are forced to fall back on evidence-free and embarrassingly arbitrary rationalization by faith. They have yet to give plausible explanations as to how one might reconcile the hypothesis of creation by a benevolent God with the existence of natural disasters such as earthquakes and humanproduced tragedies such as wars that together cause so much suffering in the world. The reconciliations that are offered—for instance, that God has a plan that we
cannot hope to understand—are merely reaffirmations of faith. For many people, the strongest evidence for the existence of God is their own personal lived experience of religious awe and devotion. There are, however, plausible psychological alternatives to the hypothesis that religious experience results from divine communication. Similar incidents can be induced by drugs such as LSD and by magnetic brain stimulation, taking on forms heavily influenced by personal cultural background. Hence religious experience can be explained as a kind of emotional consciousness arising from neural mechanisms described in Chapter 5. Even if empirical evidence beats blind faith as a road to truth, perhaps religious faith is a better route to satisfaction of personal goals than is scientific investigation. For many people, religion is a great source of comfort and reassurance that things will work out. There are even some studies suggesting that religious people are happier, although it is difficult to separate religiosity from other associated factors that also promote happiness, such as membership in a supportive community. Historically, religion has been more sociologically successful at providing a great many people with answers to questions about the meaning of life than alternative available sources, such as literature or philosophy, have been. In Chapter 7, I will argue that evidence drawn from neuroscience and psychology can provide highly useful guidance about the achievement of happiness and a meaningful life. If faith-based approaches to knowledge are inferior to evidence-based approaches, why does religion still dominate the thinking of the vast majority of people? I think the answer is a combi
วันนี้ใช้ศาสนาสำหรับค่ารักษาพยาบาล สมาชิกของคริสตจักรของพระคริสต์ นักวิทยาศาสตร์ยืนยันในจิตวิญญาณบำบัดแทนการรักษาพยาบาล แต่หมายเลขของตัวเล็ก และหดตัว ปุโรหิต รัฐมนตรี rabbis และมุสลิม imams ปรึกษาแพทย์ มากกว่าเพียงอาศัยอำนาจของพระเจ้าแทรกแซงเพื่อรักษาของ maladies แน่นอน ผู้นำศาสนายังสนับสนุนการละหมาด ได้ทดลองพบว่า หัวใจผู้ป่วยไม่ได้รับประโยชน์จากคำอธิษฐานในการกู้คืน ดังนั้น เรามีเหตุผลที่ดีจะต้องยึดตามหลักฐานแพทย์มากกว่ายาตามความเชื่อ ตามหลักฐานแพทย์มักจะไม่ง่าย ตามฉัน เป็นเรื่องที่ยากทำชนิดของการทดลองทางคลินิกควบคุมอย่างระมัดระวังที่สุดในการกำหนดประสิทธิภาพของการรักษาพยาบาล กังวลอีกได้ว่า ในการทดลองจะดำเนินการ โดยบริษัทยากับดอกเบี้ยทางการเงินแข็งแกร่งในการแสดงว่า ยาของตนเองที่มีประสิทธิภาพ เพิ่มปัญหาที่ยากเกี่ยวกับความโน้มเอียงที่เกิดจากแรงจูงใจข้อ Dismaying แต่ไม่น่าแปลกใจที่ทดสอบเผยแพร่แนวโน้มเพื่อสนับสนุนประสิทธิผลของยาถ้าพวกเขาจะดำเนินการ โดยบริษัทที่ขายมันได้ บริษัทยาอเมริกันใช้จ่ายมากขึ้นในตลาดมากกว่าที่พวกเขาทำการวิจัยและพัฒนา จึงไม่เชื่อว่า institutionally หรือ แยก การปฏิบัติตามหลักฐานแพทย์ แต่ข้อดีมันมากกว่าตามศรัทธายาสุขภาพผู้ป่วยยังคงเถียงไม่ได้ ในทำนองเดียวกัน ข้อดีของหลักฐานมากกว่าความเชื่อในการแสวงหา ของฟิสิกส์ เคมี ชีววิทยาจะได้เอกสาร บทที่ 3 จะโต้แย้งในวิธีการใช้หลักฐานการจิตวิทยาเช่น ยามีอย่าง telling ของปมหลักฐานความเชื่อเป็นถนนความรู้ แต่มันจะดีจะมีอาร์กิวเมนต์ทั่วไปที่ว่า ใช้หลักฐานการ inferences ให้คำอธิบายที่ดีที่สุดคือ วิธีการที่ได้นำไปสู่บทสรุปที่แท้จริง มีบ่อยกรณี ในชีวิตประจำวัน และ ในวิทยาศาสตร์ซึ่งหลักฐานและข้อนำเราผู้เสียคน บางครั้งเราไม่สามารถเข้าใจผู้อื่นเพราะเราเข้าถึงข้อสรุปเท็จเกี่ยวกับสถานะของจิต ในยา หลายทฤษฎีได้เปิดออกมาเป็นเท็จแม้ว่าพวกเขาดูเหมือนจะเป็นคำอธิบายที่ดีที่สุดณเวลา ทฤษฎี Hippocratic ว่า โรคที่เกิดจากความไม่สมดุลใน humors สี่เลือด เสมหะ และสีเหลือง และน้ำดีสีดำครอบงำแพทย์ปีสองพัน และทฤษฎีเช่นสมาคมแผลเปื่อยในกระเพาะอาหารกับความเครียดการยอมรับเมื่อเร็ว ๆ นี้ มีการเกิด ฟิสิกส์และเคมีได้ยังได้อธิบายทฤษฎีหลักที่จะเดี๋ยวนี้ถูกปฏิเสธ เช่นมองว่า แสงเคลื่อนที่ผ่านสื่อมองไม่เห็นเรียกว่าอีเทอร์ และการเผาไหม้ที่เกิดขึ้นเนื่องจากวัตถุที่เขียนส่งสาร firelike ที่เรียกว่าโฟลจิสตัน ถ้าคิดตามหลักฐานการใช้ข้อให้คำอธิบายที่ดีที่สุดไม่มาก บางทีมันจริง ๆ ไม่มากดีกว่า faithbased คิด ความจริงที่สามารถไปข้อให้คำอธิบายที่ดีที่สุดของหลักฐานผู้เสียคน คือ ไม่มีเหตุผลต้องปฏิเสธ ตราบเท่าที่มันมักจะได้รับสิ่งที่เหมาะสม และมีไม่มีวิธีอื่นที่มีข้อมูลดีบรรลุสัจธรรมที่สำคัญ และหลีกเลี่ยงข้อผิดพลาด ผมมีแล้วโต้เถียงตามความสำเร็จเทคโนโลยีว่า เรามีเหตุผลที่ดีเชื่อว่า ชนิดของหลักฐานตามข้อใช้ในวิทยาศาสตร์มักจะบรรลุความจริงน้อยประมาณ บทที่ 4 ประกอบด้วยอาร์กิวเมนต์ฟูลเลอร์ที่ว่า วิทยาศาสตร์ attains รู้จริงน้อยโดยประมาณ ในยาที่เราสามารถชี้ความจริงที่ว่าอายุขัยของมนุษย์เป็น คู่จะได้สองศตวรรษที่ผ่านมา ในความจริงของทฤษฎีจมูกโรคเป็นวิธีการป้องกัน และรักษาโรคให้ กรณีที่ยอมรับทฤษฎีการเกิดจุดจุดแข็งมากกว่าจุดอ่อนของหลักฐานที่ใช้ความคิด ซึ่งสามารถดำเนินการได้หลักฐานใหม่ และพัฒนาทฤษฎีใหม่ที่อธิบายได้ ไม่มีแรงจูงใจเช่นการปรับปรุงในสิ่งได้แล้วรับไว้โดยข้อความศักดิ์สิทธิ์ตามความเชื่อความคิดได้ ในทางตรงกันข้าม วิทยาศาสตร์เจริญเติบโตในความเชื่อทฤษฎีและแก้ไขปรับปรุงspurred by experimental advances. Hence medical theory and practice should be based on evidence rather than faith. Evidence, Truth, and God It might be possible, however, to use evidence to support faith-based thinking. This support could come in either of two ways, through the use of evidence to justify claims for the existence of God or through the provision of evidence that faith-based thinking at least makes people happier than does evidence-based thinking. Some philosophers and scientists have thought that the existence of God does not have to be a matter of faith but rather can be justified on the basis of evidence. The two most compelling arguments for divine existence offer explanations of the origin and design of the universe. According to the cosmological argument, the world must have had a cause, which we can identify with God. Although this argument can be put in deductive form, it is most defensible when stated as an inference to the best explanation, with the hypothesis that God created the universe providing an explanation of how the universe began. Similarly, the argument from design is most convincing as a claim that the complexity of the biological world is the result of an intelligent designer who created all forms of life. Although these two arguments are usually treated separately, they have greatest force when combined into one big coherent inference to the best explanation. We should conclude that God exists because that supposition provides the best explanation of both the existence and the complexity of the universe. This argument does not justify any particular religion, since it does not establish whether the god that is supposed to have created the world is Islam's Allah or the Catholic Trinity or the ancient Greeks' Zeus. But it would provide a basis for saying that there is some creator. Unfortunately for the theist, this mega-argument for God's existence fails because science provides alternative, competing explanations. Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection was momentous
because it furnished a strong alternative explanation of biological complexity, one that has become all the more successful because of the development of allied theories of genetics and molecular biology. Understanding of proteins, genes, and ecological populations meshes with Darwin's basic insight to provide explanations of biological changes that are far more detailed and more fully supported by evidence than is the alternative theory of intelligent design. Scientific cosmology has found experimental support for the big bang theory that the universe began about fourteen billion years ago with an explosive expansion that continues today. This theory explains evidence that galaxies are becoming more distant, that there is microwave background radiation, and that the relative proportion of light elements in the universe is what early expansion would have produced. Where the big bang came from remains speculative, but recent work in string theory suggests a possible explanation in terms of the operations of space-time objects called “branes” (see Chapter 10 for further discussion). Even without that additional theory, the combination of biological evolution and big bang cosmology possesses far more explanatory power than does the hypothesis of divine creation. Modern evolutionary theory, including molecular biology and genetics in addition to natural selection, can explain a vast array of facts about the nature and development of organisms. Cosmology and allied areas of physics explain in detail a great many facts about the nature and history of the universe. Hence defenders of religious belief are forced to fall back on evidence-free and embarrassingly arbitrary rationalization by faith. They have yet to give plausible explanations as to how one might reconcile the hypothesis of creation by a benevolent God with the existence of natural disasters such as earthquakes and humanproduced tragedies such as wars that together cause so much suffering in the world. The reconciliations that are offered—for instance, that God has a plan that we
cannot hope to understand—are merely reaffirmations of faith. For many people, the strongest evidence for the existence of God is their own personal lived experience of religious awe and devotion. There are, however, plausible psychological alternatives to the hypothesis that religious experience results from divine communication. Similar incidents can be induced by drugs such as LSD and by magnetic brain stimulation, taking on forms heavily influenced by personal cultural background. Hence religious experience can be explained as a kind of emotional consciousness arising from neural mechanisms described in Chapter 5. Even if empirical evidence beats blind faith as a road to truth, perhaps religious faith is a better route to satisfaction of personal goals than is scientific investigation. For many people, religion is a great source of comfort and reassurance that things will work out. There are even some studies suggesting that religious people are happier, although it is difficult to separate religiosity from other associated factors that also promote happiness, such as membership in a supportive community. Historically, religion has been more sociologically successful at providing a great many people with answers to questions about the meaning of life than alternative available sources, such as literature or philosophy, have been. In Chapter 7, I will argue that evidence drawn from neuroscience and psychology can provide highly useful guidance about the achievement of happiness and a meaningful life. If faith-based approaches to knowledge are inferior to evidence-based approaches, why does religion still dominate the thinking of the vast majority of people? I think the answer is a combi
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