On May 5, 2005, at 4:14 PM, William T Goodall wrote:
and (in my estimation) it is profoundly intellectually arrogant -- as well as probably disprovable -- to suggest that atheism is an insulation against nonsense.
I don't think atheism is insulation against nonsense. I think atheism is an indicator that someone is insulated against nonsense.
This suggests infallibility. I think you've missed what I was driving at, which is that *all* people are susceptible to flawed thinking; a good self-correcting process for thinking is certainly helpful, but using atheism as a litmus test to determine whether any given individual is less prone to believe other fanciful notions is itself, to me, flawed thinking, or a belief in nonsense.
As an oblique corollary, Newton was one hell of a fine rational thinker. His treatises on physics and optics are very good examples of that. However, he also attempted to use that fine rational mind of his to try to prove Biblical claims. Erik might suggest that Newton was addled, and maybe he was in the religious arena.
Gregor Mendel, even tough he was a monk, did some seriously groundbreaking work in genetics. His pea-plant charts are virtually cliche in science classrooms in the US, a little like the eye charts in optician's offices that read E FP TOZ LPED... This suggests that even though he might have been addled in some ways, he was an incisive thinker in others.
The corollary is this. While one could argue that atheists are being fine rational thinkers in the arena of religion, there's pretty strong circumstantial evidence to suggest that they (we) can also be addled in ways not apparent to them (us).
-- Warren Ockrassa, Publisher/Editor, nightwares Books http://books.nightwares.com/ Current work in progress "The Seven-Year Mirror" http://www.nightwares.com/books/ockrassa/Flat_Out.pdf
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