People are much better at reasoning about everyday situations - common sense, as it were - than they are about abstruse philosophical matters like God's existence. Hence there's a logical puzzle involving cards which most people can't figure out, but when an entirely analogous puzzle is posed involving people and drinks, it's easy to crack. Little of what people do in normal life is irrational in the sense that DvF means it, anyway. Their basic assumptions may be irrational, but their behaviour is not irrational, or even unreasonable, on the supposition that those premises are true e.g. going to church.
As for the initial topic of the thread, I think that atheists who are insulting and rude are irresponsible, because all atheists are inevitably tarred with the same brush in the eyes of some theists, and indeed people of other theological positions such as agnostics. They ought, out of consideration for their fellow non-believers, to paint a positive image of atheists.
As for the initial topic of the thread, I think that atheists who are insulting and rude are irresponsible, because all atheists are inevitably tarred with the same brush in the eyes of some theists, and indeed people of other theological positions such as agnostics. They ought, out of consideration for their fellow non-believers, to paint a positive image of atheists.
'We must respect the other fellow's religion, but only in the sense and to the extent that we respect his theory that his wife is beautiful and his children smart.' H.L. Mencken
'False religion' is the ultimate tautology.
'It is just like man's vanity and impertinence to call an animal dumb because it is dumb to his dull perceptions.' Mark Twain
'I care not much for a man's religion whose dog and cat are not the better for it.' Abraham Lincoln
'False religion' is the ultimate tautology.
'It is just like man's vanity and impertinence to call an animal dumb because it is dumb to his dull perceptions.' Mark Twain
'I care not much for a man's religion whose dog and cat are not the better for it.' Abraham Lincoln
