Evolutionary Argument Against Naturalism
Has anyone heard this Alvin Plantinga argument?
-Darwin's Doubt: Since our brains evolved from lower animals, how can we trust them?
-Our nervous system was evolved for survival (reproduction, fleeing predators, metabolism, find food, etc.), not for finding truth.
-Darwin's bulldog Huxley believed in epiphenomenalism: your beliefs have no effect on your behavior. So evolution does nothing to ensure you have true beliefs.
-If epiphenomenalism is false, natural selection favors beliefs that lead to survival.
-Say you are a caveman and you see a lion.
(1) If you stay you will get eaten by the lion (true), so you run away.
(2) You are running a marathon, and the lion is just a signal "on your mark, get set..." (false).
(3) You think the lion is a cute little kitty (false) and you want to pet it, and the best way to pet it is to run away (false).
Only (1) is a true belief. But even if you harbor (2) or (3), natural selection will favor that belief.
So our brains aren't trustworthy.
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