Folk psychology: I see a solid table
Clever materialist: How do you know it’s really as you think?
Folk psychology: All the evidence of my five senses!
Clever materialist: Rubbish! Science has shown that those perceptions are not reliable at all, but are mere interpretations of reality (and the product of blind evolution, as well). Your “table” is really just particles and energy in motion!
Folk psychology: How do you know?
Clever materialist: Fool! All the data in scientific books and papers, and all the information from reliable instruments, of course.
Folk psychology: How do you know those books, papers and instruments are really as you think?
Clever materialist: All the evidence of my five senses!
I am reminded of a debate I watched between a Christian and an Atheist. The Atheist tried to convince his audience that the Universe didn’t follow the traditional views of logic … and he (ahem) used those same rules of logic to explain his point.
It’s amazing to me how certain people can be so incredibly smart in a very specific area of inquiry (like, say, cosmology or biology), and be so incredibly lacking in the logic department.
-Tim
Maybe that’s why the New Atheists prefer insult to logic.
I just wanna hear the folk psychologists description of how the table tasted!
You don’t lick up the food you spill over there???