tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4580535460030164028.post7466741765215068698..comments2023-04-11T09:46:53.479+00:00Comments on anticant's arena: Does reason matter?anticanthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18135207107619114891noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4580535460030164028.post-32931858309626680072007-03-24T19:44:00.000+00:002007-03-24T19:44:00.000+00:00In a recent post on 'Atheistic Fundamentalism', TH...In a recent post on 'Atheistic Fundamentalism', THE BAREFOOT BUM says:<BR/><BR/>"What separates dogmatism and fundamentalism from ordinary conviction as to the truth is not the confidence with which the belief is held, but the rational justification for that belief...<BR/><BR/>"When one is talking about ordinary matters of prosaic truth, there is not much room for ambiguity or difference of opinion. The Earth really is round. Rocks really do fall from the sky. Humans and chimpanzees really do share a common ancestor. Human beings really are making the Earth get warmer. HIV really does cause AIDS and can be passed through semen. These statements are true. If you disagree with any of these statements, you're wrong.<BR/><BR/>"Without actually looking at the rational basis for one's belief, any person convinced of some ordinary, prosaic truth will look just as "dogmatic" or "fundamentalist" as any Bible-thumper—because he too believes in the truth of what the Bible says.<BR/><BR/>"That's what true means: That there's a right answer, and all the other answers are wrong...<BR/><BR/>"Of course atheists look like they're dogmatic; just as—if you consider evolution mere opinion—evolutionary biologists seem dogmatic; just as—if you consider global warming mere opinion—Al Gore seems dogmatic; just as—if you consider medicine mere opinion—Physicians seem dogmatic about pushing condoms.<BR/><BR/>"The bottom line is that atheists seem dogmatic and fundamentalist because we really are convinced that atheism is true. What separates us from the dogmatic and fundamentalist religious is that we actually do have the philosophical and empirical arguments to back up our positions; All the religious have is epistemic nihilism..."<BR/><BR/>Good thinking!anticanthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18135207107619114891noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4580535460030164028.post-46819638982588460212007-03-23T16:09:00.000+00:002007-03-23T16:09:00.000+00:00SORRY, Chaps, one is not "against" reason; nor any...SORRY, Chaps, one is not "against" reason; nor any more than as against oh, say, random affect mistaken for "deep feeling" and so on. Whereas a whipsaw and a draw-knife /are/ jolly tools my old Grandpa showed me how to use here in southern Minnesota, on the North Coast of Iowa, more than fifty years since. But, one would no more try to make a chronometre with these tools than would attempt to adjust ones computer with a sledge and a splitting-wedge (although /'tis/ effing bloody /tempting/, sometimes....<BR/><BR/>Grandpa WookBodwyn Wookhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04152813177593209096noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4580535460030164028.post-52650219545417688462007-03-22T08:48:00.000+00:002007-03-22T08:48:00.000+00:00"It is my firm conviction that man has nothing to ..."It is my firm conviction that man has nothing to gain, emotionally or otherwise, by adhering to a falsehood, regardless of how comfortable or sacred that falsehood may appear. Anyone who claims, on the one hand, that he is concerned with human welfare, and who demands, on the other hand, that man must suspend or renounce the use of his reason, is contradicting himself. There can be no knowledge of what is good for man apart from knowledge of reality and human nature - and there is no manner in which this knowledge can be acquired except through reason. To advocate irrationality is to advocate that which is destructive to human life."<BR/><BR/>- GEORGE H. SMITH: "Atheism: The Case Against God".anticanthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18135207107619114891noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4580535460030164028.post-70649590950521745622007-03-21T20:05:00.000+00:002007-03-21T20:05:00.000+00:00Well, I think Emmett has come out strongly against...Well, I think Emmett has come out strongly against reason. (wink)<BR/><BR/>See: <A HREF="http://barefootbum.blogspot.com/2007/03/quote-of-day.html" REL="nofollow">The True Believers</A> and <A HREF="http://barefootbum.blogspot.com/2007/03/quote-for-day.html" REL="nofollow">Scientific Creationism: World View, not Science</A>.Larry Hamelinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08788697573946266404noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4580535460030164028.post-40977899892661750952007-03-20T16:18:00.000+00:002007-03-20T16:18:00.000+00:00AH, Me, were it only so. /IF/ Reason, sweet Reaso...AH, Me, were it only so. <BR/><BR/>/IF/ Reason, sweet Reason reasonable alone, was indeed the /true/ greater and objective, all-deciding, broader, deeper and all-embracing container of the phenomenal World; if 'twere Reason that /a priori/ had absorbed and described and, above all, /decided/ all that is, was and ever shall be; why, children, then (and ONLY then!) might we have seen victory in al-'Iraq.<BR/><BR/>FOR Then, /immediately/, Reason's Children, with their pornographic digital cameras and festive abu-'Ghraib bdsm-manacles, and on just landing in the country four years ago, should (and on the instant!) have been surrounded by the glad, festive & orgiastic, rutting, 'arab crowds, all doffing their duds and flinging away 'holy books', all to join in the general and indiscriminate -- Fucking of the West.<BR/><BR/>[Sorry, chaps, 'tis just /another/ chisel in the box (ours quite dull by now!) -- 'Timing IS everything', as The Cat said whilst peeing in the geranium-pot whilst the Farm Lady's back was turned -- ES]<BR/><BR/>OBJECTIVELY,<BR/><BR/>B Wook 'abd al-'AbruBodwyn Wookhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04152813177593209096noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4580535460030164028.post-42594167876993752112007-03-20T09:14:00.000+00:002007-03-20T09:14:00.000+00:00"The Heart has its reasons of which Reason knows n..."The Heart has its reasons of which Reason knows nothing"Richard W. Symondshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11783091361323437959noreply@blogger.com