Ethics of Belief:

--with the growth of science, new standards

of the right way to acquire beliefs

enter our culture

--to say it is "unscientific"  is often like

saying "it shouldn't be believed"

--we have seen something of the power

of scientific reasoning:  science rests

on methodology (very broadly defined): the idea of laying your

beliefs on the line and of falsification, as well as many other

practices and traditions that constitute the history of science

--our culture the first in which a significant

proportion defines itself as

non-believers (though this proportion is

still far from the majority)

--living a secular life is now, to use

William James' phrase, "a living option"

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