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Originally Posted by Xrayz0r
Uhm, for lack of a better word. If you're familiar with Hegel, you'll know that leaps are made when reason allows one (or many) to reason itself out of a certain situation (or belief) in order to ascend. And once you're there, it will be reason again to acknowledge that something is also wrong with this new situation (or belief) which will once again pull you up towards a higher truth, or closer to it.
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And if I argued that we are assuming this result is not progressive, what would your challenge be to this? Hegel is also one of the important thinkers that have clouded contemporary philosophy by becoming engaged with the history of philosophy itself. I do not "know" that reason allows us to "ascend" because, at this point, I disagree with what this nature of progression is. We can assume Hegel's definition, and then yes, you might be right, but if we were to attack Hegel's position, then we may see religious reasoning and scientific reasoning in different ways.
An analysis of the past and a synthesis (as Hegel believed) of historical ideas merging to reason their way through to a better future is not necessarily progress. Hegel might have felt this way, and there are certainly some aspects of society that can be seen as progressive (for example, technology), but there could be aspects of society that we see similar trends from ancient times to modern times. If fact, I could argue that our current methods of reasoning and analysis have added more problems to things than not.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Xrayz0r
Without reason, there would never be progress, because nothing would make anyone realize that whatever the current situation is, has problems. It's an inevitability within any society, but it faces difficulty when one has advanced at a faster pace than another, because of different reasons, and comes in conflict. Religion has great appeal because it answers to what people are afraid of. Emotions cloud reason.
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Religion provides answers just as much as science does. Yes, there's always that added bonus of "understanding" what lies after death (which, as we all know, is different according to the religion), which is certainly a comfort to our fear of death as a species, as well as ascribing to other pre-established assumptions, but that does not necessarily mean that religion has fallen behind.
Again, I ask: "What is progress?"
And how does this "progress" truly render religion to be a relic that has fallen behind?