RE: Exposing the Intellectual Bankruptcy of Atheists Criticizing Religion
December 11, 2015 at 3:52 pm
(This post was last modified: December 11, 2015 at 3:52 pm by Neo-Scholastic.)
(December 10, 2015 at 1:12 pm)LadyForCamus Wrote: I have a microscopic leprechaun who lives on the tip of my thumb, and dances the jig all day. Wait, you don't believe me? Why not? Just because you can't see the microscopic leprechaun dancing on my thumb, that doesn't mean he doesn't EXIST! ...that's because he can't be found through empirical scientific methods. ...can you honestly say that the next logical step in a sane person's train of rational thought is to simply conclude: my tiny leprechaun MUST certainly be real?
Your leprechaun example is stupid. It’s an obvious category error, the type that only fools fall into and childish contrarians put forth. Questions about being itself cannot be approached in the same way as questions about particular beings. Metaphysical questions are about what people can know about anything that is, regardless of what it is? For example, what do acorns, people, electrons, oil paintings, and numbers have in common with each other.
Maybe you think such inquiries are pointless or just bullshit. You have that right. But you cannot ignore that such stances come at great cost. Ideas about the fundamental nature of reality touch on the most important and consequential issues of life – values, autonomy, and rationality. They inform our social interactions, personal behavior, and private life of the mind. Your positivist stance disqualifies you from entertaining any meaningful thoughts or beliefs about the human condition.
