Blog # 4 Philosophical terms and concepts

Topic: "God and the Origin of the Universe"


1. Agnosticism: The belief that it is impossible to know whether God exists, or to have any other theological knowledge. English thinkers T. H. Huxley (1825-95) and Bertrand Russell were influential agnostics. http://mb-soft.com/believe/txo/philterm.htm

2. Cosmogony: A theory or story about the origin of the universe, either scientific or mythological. Cosmogonies are also called creation myths. http://mb-soft.com/believe/txo/philterm.htm

3. Second law of thermodynamics: Is an expression of the universal law of increasing entropy, stating that the entropy of an isolated system which is not in equilibrium will tend to increase over time, approaching a maximum value at equilibrium.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Law_of_Thermodynamics

4. Natural Selection: Central thesis of the biologist Charles Darwin which suggests that within every population of living organisms there are random variations which have different survival value. Those which aid survival (or enhance reproductive capacity) are 'selected' by being genetically transmitted to succeeding generations.
http://www.filosofia.net/materiales/rec/glosaen.htm

5. Scepticism: The view that, since we can not confirm or prove that anything exists outside of our perception of them, we should deny any claims to true knowledge of them, or at least suspend judgement (from the Greek skepsis - doubt). When sceptics, like Montaigne, ask themselves "What can we know?" they answer, that there is nothing that we can "know" for certain in the sense of the word "know" as used by the rationalists and empiricists. This is a radical rejection of the notion of universal truths or knowledge beyond human perception.
http://www.creatorix.com.au/philosophy/t03/t03b.html