Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Bertrand Russell on the existential implications of metaphysical naturalism


Have you seriously asked yourself about the implications of naturalism? In other words, if naturalism were true, which is the ultimate purpose of your life or existence? (the key word here is "ultimate")

Some time ago, famous secularist and naturalist philosopher Bertrand Russell commented about this question:

That man is the product of causes which had no prevision of the end they were achieving; . . . that no fire, no heroism, no intensity of thought and feeling, can preserve an individual life beyond the grave; that all the labours of the ages, all the devotion, all the inspiration, all the noonday brightness of human genius, are destined to extinction in the vast death of the solar system, and that the whole temple of Man’s achievement must inevitably be buried beneath the debris of a universe in ruins--all these things, if not quite beyond dispute, are yet so nearly certain, that no philosophy which rejects them can hope to stand. Only within the scaffolding of these truths, only on the firm foundation of unyielding despair, can the soul’s habitation henceforth be safely built ("A Free Man’s Worship,” in The Basic Writings of Bertrand Russell, eds., Robert E. Egner and Lester E. Denonn. p. 67. Emphasis in blue added)

If naturalism is true, Russell's point seems to be irrefutable.

Whatever you do in this life is, objectively and ultimately, without any trascendence or meaning. You're esssentially, radically and basically (in an ultimate sense) nothing (or more precisely, you come from nothing, and your ultimate end will be literally nothing... being your current existence a mere insignificant cosmic accident, without any ultimate trascendence, meaning or purpose at all).

If naturalism is true, your actual destiny will be radical and permanent EXTINCTION. And no knowledge, no money, no debating tactics, no books, no current fun activities, no "skeptical activism", no self-delusion, no ego, no self-centered interests, no science, no health, no happiness, no hard work, no love, no moral values, no altruism, no admiration from your fellows or friends, no professional merits, no academic titles, no personal victories in whatever field, no activity at all will prevent you to be extinguished... forever. And it would extend for all of us and even to the physical universe itself (which is the only existent reality for naturalism).

The ultimate destiny or fate of the killer, the rapist or the terrotist will be, literally, exactly the same than the destiny of good people: extinction and permanent non-existence. Ultimately, there is not difference at all (be for you or for anybody else, since all of us will be, at the end, extinguished).

This is why it's absolutely crucial that you examine carefully all the relevant the evidence for and against metaphysical naturalism, before you decide accept that worldview (and therefore, to believe and act consistently according to its implications).

Think about it.

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