again, as i said the last time this article was posted, this is a huge ad hominem fallacy. attacking the people that make an argument does not equate to attacking the argument.
all humans are irrational. it doesn't make the irrationality of religion or the loch ness monster any less irrational, just because someone else has some irrationalities in their beliefs, too. this is not a zero sum game.
I don't think that's the point of the article at all. It sounds like this piece is talking about how Christianity sort of inoculates people: they do believe in something crazy, but that crazy belief also requires them to disbelieve in lots of other crazy stuff.
i suppose it could be read that way, although i took the slant based on the title. like, a "look who's irrational now" playing on the fact that atheists like to point at theists and say that they're irrational, but based on this information they also believe in irrational things.
Well, yes. That is the point of the article. Atheists say that Christians are obviously irrational, and Christians argue that atheists are more irrational about some things than Christians are. I wonder what the average atheist would make of this information, but I'm not surprised that most of the people writing about it are theists.
again, what i was saying in my initial post was that all humans are irrational to some degree, which is why this boils down to a giant ad hom. just because a person is irrational does not mean that arguments or ideas that come from that person are necessarily irrational.
when did i ever say that was the point? all i'm saying is that the tone of this article is retaliatory, not explanatory or even-handed.
it cleanly sets up the argument that atheists believe in nutty things, so their belief in atheism is also nutty too. christians don't believe in nutty things therefore their belief in religion isn't nutty either. etc.. this is because the 'negative' focus is on the atheists, with only positive focus on the theists.
What I read out of it is the tyranny of the "one truth," which is inculcated in many religious people. You know, I believe in the Holy Ghost, but not ghosts, or Islam produces fanatics, but let's proselytize around the world fanatically. It's about justifying your own, and eliminating all else -- how else do you get heathens to convert?
The article is about how humans consistently believe in something outside their normal knowledge, not about the validity of atheism or any other belief/non-belief system.
Very interesting the 10% of atheists who pray weekly. I wonder how they do that? a form letter? "Dear whichever deity this may concern, please..."
This is basically right, though I'd reserve a special place for unlikely but not paranormal beliefs like Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster. Those don't violate any physical laws, and there's nothing irrational about thinking they might exist. Enough supposedly long-extinct creatures have turned up in hunter's traps and fishermen's nets that I wouldn't be shocked to find, say, a relic population of prehistoric primates scraping out a living in the Pacific Northwest.
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[ 3.8 ms ] story [ 35.1 ms ] threadall humans are irrational. it doesn't make the irrationality of religion or the loch ness monster any less irrational, just because someone else has some irrationalities in their beliefs, too. this is not a zero sum game.
it cleanly sets up the argument that atheists believe in nutty things, so their belief in atheism is also nutty too. christians don't believe in nutty things therefore their belief in religion isn't nutty either. etc.. this is because the 'negative' focus is on the atheists, with only positive focus on the theists.
and no, i'm not an atheist.
Just my view.
The article is about how humans consistently believe in something outside their normal knowledge, not about the validity of atheism or any other belief/non-belief system.
Very interesting the 10% of atheists who pray weekly. I wonder how they do that? a form letter? "Dear whichever deity this may concern, please..."
Now even God is getting junk mail. Geesh.
http://ag.org/top/Beliefs/Statement_of_Fundamental_Truths/sf...
is so much more rational than belief in astrology.