One of the most interesting things about all of the squawking and shrieking by various Internet atheists in response to The Irrational Atheist has been the way they have tended to complain about the contempt I show for their champions while failing to even try to refute the great majority of the charges. No one, for example, has serously attempted to defend any of Daniel Dennett’s logical blunders, which are particularly damning in an academic who is supposed to be a reasonably competent philosopher. At first I suspected this might due to the fact that they were so relieved I wasn’t blasting away at one of the New Atheists with both barrels for once that they didn’t even notice how the blatant errors in Dennett’s thinking tend to undermine the man’s reputation. However, after seeing the way one critic after another showed a near complete inability to competently address any of the many cases I have made, I was forced to conclude that merely seeing the words “division of doxastic labor” is enough to make their overheated little brains shut down and force them to skip ahead to the next chapter, which is a nice bit and also makes fun of the French.
Dennett’s rationale for not holding those who believe in science accountable for the same doxastic division of labor he calls “immoral” in religious individuals is not his only logical error in Breaking the Spell, but it is easily the least defensible. Perhaps if his editor had been capable of understanding the philosopher’s logic and done him the favor of it repeating it accurately to him, Dennett would have recognized the absurdity of his position and saved himself serious embarrassment.
That I will execute the office of President to the United States faithfully
That I will execute….(frown, blank look)
In the interest of sheer comedy, Obama should never be permitted the use of a teleprompter again. And it’s 43 presidents, Mr. President. 43. Remember that whole Bush ’41 and ’43 thing? That was the guy you just replaced.
A total of 11 men, including three juveniles, appeared at Portsmouth Magistrates’ Court facing charges of indecent chanting. They relate to offensive remarks made at the Portsmouth defender during a match against Tottenham Hotspur at Fratton Park, Portsmouth, on September 28 last year.
Somehow, I have the impression that none of the ArabBritish demonstrators who recently attacked the Israeli embassy in London are likely to ever be charged with “indecent chanting”.
In Dawkins’s view, there is a battle taking place in Britain between the forces of reason and religious fundamentalism and it is far from won. He is one of its most famous and prolific combatants – but the question might be whether he is among its most effective. The The God Delusion’s stated aim was to “convert” readers to atheism – but he admits that as a proselytising tool it has broadly failed….
Like most rationalists, Dawkins tends to invoke people’s innate intelligence, and attribute their flawed ways of thinking to ignorance rather than stupidity. “But I don’t have any evidence,” he concedes. “I could be wrong. It’s a kind of ideal. It’s a sort of bending over backwards.” People might just be stupid, I suggest. “They might be, yes,” he cautiously agrees. “But at least my saying that ignorance is no crime is my defence against the charge of arrogance. Because if you tell people they’re stupid, that certainly isn’t the way to win friends and influence people.”
Dawkins once described the British Airways employee dismissed for wearing a gold cross to work as having “the stupidest face”. Did he regret saying it?
A slightly naughty smile flickers over his face.
“Well … well … yes, I do really. Yes. That was an unguarded moment. Although I think I said stupid-looking. Did you see the photograph of her? I think if you look up the story, and they’ve got the photograph … ” He checks himself, and stops. “But this is unkind.”
The reality is that most people, including Richard Dawkins, are idiots. They cannot be educated out of their idiocy and as a result they are doomed to repeat the mistakes of their historical antecedents over and over again. And everyone is observably irrational a significant portion of the time, so attempting to build a society on science and reason is not only a tried, tested, and failed concept, it is an inherently idiotic and irrational idea from the start. It’s not actually science that is losing to religion anyhow, it is merely the radical secularists who have falsely claimed that science is intrinsically on their side who find themselves in a bewildered retreat.
The fact that most people are idiots, however, does not excuse one who makes a habit of going out of his way, indeed, has downright made it a career, to baselessly assert that the great majority of the human race are idiots or ignoramuses solely because they do not share his disbelief in God. If Dawkins was not, like so many atheists, socially autistic, he would know that one must always convert the heart before one can begin to convert the mind. This can be done through love, it can be done through example, and it can be done through fear, but it cannot be done through a withering and completely unwarranted contempt.
People believe or don’t believe in the existence of God for a wide variety of reasons, but anyone who has read much of Richard Dawkins’s work will recognize that Dawkins doesn’t believe there is almost certainly no God due to either science or reason. Science has very little to say on that score, while I and many othere have pointed out the numerous flaws in Dawkins’s reason. And yet, he still clings stubbornly to his atheism. The inescapable conclusion is that Richard Dawkins doesn’t believe in God because of his own individual shortcomings, many of which fall in the area of his character.
The state will suspend tax refunds, welfare checks, student grants and other payments owed to Californians starting Feb. 1, Controller John Chiang announced Friday…. California is projected to be $346 million short of the funds it needs to pay all its bills in February. By March, the state would be so far in the red that even continuing to suspend payments would not cover the shortfall. California would be insolvent, making the issuance of IOUs likely.
Perhaps they could encourage the immigration of more Mexicans. That should help solve the problem. We’re told they’re good for the economy, after all.
Villful failure to zelebrate zee magical negritude ist strictly VERBOTEN:
“Inappropriate comments that may make other students, staff or families feel unwelcome or uncomfortable in school or on the bus will not be tolerated,” Superintendent Kevin Bright said in an e-mail sent to parents Monday, Jan. 12…. Jeff Schlaeger, Mason High School’s psychologist, said “inappropriate comments” occurred around election week when doctored pictures of Obama appeared at the school, including “derogatory caricatures” of him dressed like a terrorist and signs that read “Obama ’08/Biden ’09.”
As Spacebunny noted, it’s vital to teach them that freedom of speech doesn’t actually mean freedom of speech when they’re too young to notice the doublethink. One really can’t afford to have them learning to take their freedoms LITERALLY, after all.
The English people are being sold a whole herd of pigs in a poke, and they don’t even know what it will cost:
The Treasury has formally announced a scheme to allow banks to exchange cash or shares for a Government guarantee on their “toxic” debts, transferring any losses they suffer from the banks to the taxpayer. However, the Chancellor admitted he can’t estimate how much taxpayers’ money will needed in the latest bailout.
It will be interesting to see how many of the self-appointed financial whizzes I pointed out in today’s column, those who backed the first round of bailouts, will line up in favor of this one. Because there’s a pretty good chance that the banks will soon be pushing something like this on the American public.
UPDATE – Even Krugman is now pessimistic about the next round of bailouts:
I hope I’m wrong, but I suspect that taxpayers are about to get another raw deal — and that we’re about to get another financial rescue plan that fails to do the job.
I like the Cardinals and the Steelers today. Which isn’t saying much, considering the way in which my picks were 1-3 last week. But I think the Arizona passing game is enough to outshoot a very beatable Eagles team, and while I might have chosen the Ravens if they were healthy, I think Pittsburgh’s offensive line has improved enough to give Roethlisberger time against the depleted Baltimore defense.
It always sounds self-serving, if not sour grapes, when an author points out that book sales are actually a very poor indicator of literary quality. The fact that Dan Brown and Tim LaHaye are among the best-selling authors in the world should suffice to conclusively prove the point, and yet some still cling to the notion that insignificant sales indicate an inferior writer.
I’m not bothered by this myself, especially since it tends to work in my favor – wrongly, as it happens – in other fields. But it does bother me when I see it applied to other writers whose books I very much admire. In today’s Black Gate post, I hail one overlooked gem of the recent past.
John Mortimer, barrister, author, playwright and creator of Horace Rumpole, the cunning defender of the British criminal classes, died on Friday at his home in Oxfordshire, England. He was 85.
As with Wodehouse, one does not read John Mortimer expecting surprises, insight, or philosophy. One simply reads him for the absurd pleasure of wallowing in Rumpole. But underneath the humor, the writer’s eye was a keen one, especially when it came to chronicling the essential farce of the human condition.
“Dying is a matter of slapstick and pratfalls. The aging process is not gradual or gentle. It rushes up, pushes you over and runs off laughing. No one should grow old who isn’t ready to appear ridiculous.”
