346 RELIGION, MORALITY, FAITH, AND REASON12 If all of our knowledge is physical knowledge (knowledge in physics,
fully expressible in terms of the concepts of physics) then all that we
have to justify us in thinking that something is an explanation or that
all of our knowledge is physical knowledge (knowledge in physics,
fully expressible in terms of the concepts of physics) is reference only
to physical descriptions and explanation of things.
13 If all of our knowledge is physical knowledge (knowledge in physics,
fully expressible in terms of the concepts of physics) then all of our
knowledge will not justify us in thinking that something is an
explanation, or in thinking that all of our knowledge is physical
knowledge (knowledge in physics, fully expressible in terms of the
concepts of physics). (from 11, 12)
So scientism is self-defeating.
Belief and knowledge: religious and otherwise
In fact, religious belief and knowledge is in many ways not unlike belief
and knowledge of other sorts. Understanding this will prepare the way for
pointing out some of the ways in which various sorts of belief and
knowledge, religious and non-religious, interact and intermingle.
Propositions
We know many things – that two plus two is four, that there are golden
retrievers, that oak trees are not made of gold, that we exist, that
broccoli does not taste like chocolate, and so on through an enormously
large number of pieces of knowledge. We typically say what we know by
asserting something. We say that two plus two is four, that there are
golden retrievers, that oak trees are not made of gold, that we exist, that
broccoli does not taste like chocolate, and so on. What we thus assert is
true. If we are multilingual, we can assert the same truths in more than
one language. If we are not multilingual, we can do the same thing by
using various sentences in the language we know to say the same thing:
2 and 2 is 4; 2 and 2 sum to 4; adding 2 and 2, we get 4; and so on. It is
not the sentences that are true; what is true is what we use the sentences
to assert. It will be useful to have a term for what we use sentences to
assert; the term proposition is standard. A proposition is the bearer of
truth value – anything that is true, and anything that is false, is a
proposition.