tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26741618.post4579285234496888484..comments2024-02-28T02:22:20.886-08:00Comments on homunculus: Philip Ballhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09986655706443117158noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26741618.post-28055621933911624762009-06-26T05:52:06.978-07:002009-06-26T05:52:06.978-07:00Correction - atheists who seek *no* quarrel with b...Correction - atheists who seek *no* quarrel with believers.Robin Edgarhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06208142626285495635noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26741618.post-3213580185528231462009-06-26T05:49:55.204-07:002009-06-26T05:49:55.204-07:00Why call them militant when you can quite justifia...Why call them militant when you can quite justifiably call them <a href="http://emersonavenger.blogspot.com/2008/07/is-richard-dawkins-very-model-of.html" rel="nofollow">Atheist Supremacists</a>? :-)<br /><br />In fact, the very reason that I do call Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, Sam Harris et al Atheist Supremnacists or fundamentalist atheists (a justifiable description that such militant atheists don't deal with well) is to distinguish these dogmatic and intolerant, to say nothing of evangelical, atheists from the more moderate atheists who seek know quarrel with believers or at least prefer civil and respectful debate. Oh for the days when Carl Sagan was the face of Public Understanding of Science.Robin Edgarhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06208142626285495635noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26741618.post-50375584829592885402009-05-24T01:14:54.051-07:002009-05-24T01:14:54.051-07:00Philip
You cannot know how much I appreciate your...Philip<br /><br />You cannot know how much I appreciate your comment. I always try to discuss issues courteously and reasonably, and to treat the opposing viewpoint with respect, but I rarely find anyone on the internet prepared to recognise that.<br /><br />Thank you.unkleEhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12207729664951716799noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26741618.post-77416300823657483702009-05-24T01:13:42.469-07:002009-05-24T01:13:42.469-07:00Philip
You cannot know how much I appreciate your...Philip<br /><br />You cannot know how much I appreciate your comment. I always try to discuss issues courteously and reasonably, and to treat the opposing viewpoint with respect, but I rarely find anyone on the internet prepared to recognise that.<br /><br />Thank you.unkleEhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12207729664951716799noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26741618.post-12132611762740906042009-05-23T16:40:39.325-07:002009-05-23T16:40:39.325-07:00Thanks unkle e, I appreciate these thoughtful comm...Thanks unkle e, I appreciate these thoughtful comments. And I stand corrected - I'm wrong to assume that people like you just ignore any inconvenient contradictions. Yes, I know others who think about them deeply too. That seems to me to be an intellectual position that is entirely respectable.<br />In any event, this debate will continue - watch the Reason Project site...Philip Ballhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09986655706443117158noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26741618.post-21567804103927539962009-05-23T15:22:43.309-07:002009-05-23T15:22:43.309-07:00"The idea seems to be: A will influence, if not so...<I>"The idea seems to be: A will influence, if not sometimes outright determine, B. The human brain conflates "ought" with "is" all the time - I don't think it cares much for cognitive dissonance."</I>It's an interesting way to try to denigrate a view one doesn't agree with, but doesn't it work both ways? Cannot a believer argue, with similar (or perhaps more?) evidence, that non-believers fall prey to the same processes?<br /><br />For example, the logical consequence of naturalism seems to be determinism, but few like to think they lack freewill (and our society, and even this discussion, depend on us having freewill), so few believe it. And Daniel Dennett writes complex books trying to show how we can have freeewill of a sort despite being determined. Sounds like cognitive dissonance to me.<br /><br />Same can be said for our practical belief in some things being truly right and wrong, even though evolutionary theory suggests otherwise.unkleEhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12207729664951716799noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26741618.post-13897858000392790132009-05-21T17:52:15.439-07:002009-05-21T17:52:15.439-07:00"might not [A]'take the bits they like', but rathe..."might not [A]'take the bits they like', but rather [B]take the bits we think are true?"<br /><br />The idea seems to be: A will influence, if not sometimes outright determine, B. The human brain conflates "ought" with "is" all the time - I don't think it cares much for cognitive dissonance.Gamhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16929144832139880834noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26741618.post-66699240529107221322009-05-21T15:18:17.860-07:002009-05-21T15:18:17.860-07:00"Many people (not me) are apparently able to recon...<I>"Many people (not me) are apparently able to reconcile religious belief with a deep trust in science. I’m not sure how, but they do. I suspect they just take the bits they like and ignore the bits that clash."</I>I am one such person, a christian who has studied both engineering and theology, and worked as an environmental manager for many years. I enjoyed your blog and your "Nature Muse", because I too believe that some atheists have become so militant as to effectively be fundamentalists. And as a christian, I find militant fundamentalism of both belief and disbelief scary.<br /><br />But I wanted to comment on the above statement. Have you considered that christians like me, deeply concerned to be as truthful as possible, might not <I>"take the bits they like"</I>, but rather take the bits we think are true?<br /><br />And could it not be possible that we don't <I>"ignore the bits that clash"</I>, but rather continue to grapple with the difficulties?<br /><br />That's what I thought I have been doing most of my life. Just like scientists do with the facts and observations before them.<br /><br />You don't have to agree with us to understand that many of us think about our faith just like we think about life.<br /><br />Thanks, and best wishes.unkleEhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12207729664951716799noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26741618.post-63687980055634478012009-05-20T06:20:13.232-07:002009-05-20T06:20:13.232-07:00"Hitchens is not God"
I bumped into a little god-..."Hitchens is not God"<br /><br />I bumped into a little god-squaddy in the town the other day; and before he could get his spiel out, I found myself preaching to him about the virtues of science. Then he told me he was an engineering student from San Diego, who enjoyed physics.<br /><br />The encounter caused the reflection of how different the main branches of science are to each other; they evolved differently, each to their function. And similarly, since protestantism, the Christian church has evolved many sects according to the needs of their respective communities.<br /><br />In a way, the Reason Project risks undoing this evolution, as the natural response to the challenge is for disparate opponents to re-form alliances. Strength through unity, is the illiberal cry of fascism.<br /><br />Another thought was how the best creative research science is occasioned with the least 'rationality'. The snobby name is hypothesising; where to 'think outside the box' means that 95% of your ideas on Monday are rubbished by Wednesday. You spend Thursday and Friday trying to encourage your 'rational' colleagues, with firsts from Durham, how to have original thought. So I guess what I'm saying is that you can be a little too rational sometimes, at the detriment of creativity.<br /><br />Not that creativity is all its made up to be; remember the cry of the punk rockers in the late seventies: "We want to be different". After a few months, they all looked the same.<br /><br />And finally; even though religion is irrational, in most schools it barely compromises a couple of lessons a week. The real menace is surely the disaster of education itself; what's the point of changing the bath water if the baby is long dead.JimmyGirohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01548795180321590463noreply@blogger.com