Enthusiastic Warriors

In The Gospel Of Scientific Materialism , today’s “On the Square” article, R. R. Reno explains why those he calls “our Happy Warriors of Science” — the Dawkins/Dennett crowd — are so enthusiastic, nay Evangelical, about “the most reductive sort of materialism.”

The basic thrust of a reductive science of the mind involves a move from cultural categories—“I have an obligation to care for my children”—to biological ones—“I only feel an obligation because human DNA has evolved to promote species survival.”

This, he goes on to show, has all sorts of benefits.

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