RE: Theists: Hitchens Wager
April 24, 2018 at 7:25 am
(This post was last modified: April 24, 2018 at 7:29 am by The Grand Nudger.)
Yeah, I know..but...again, barring motivations, there is nothing that an atheist or believer could do that the other could not because the only possible answer to that question would amount to superhuman abilities. This was absolutely -not- the question hitchens was asking, or the thrust of that wager or it's rejoinder. It's not even a meaningful question.
It was formulated in the way that it was expliitly to point out that while it;s difficult to think of something roundly considered to be moral being the sole possession of believers, it's blissfully easy to come up with examples of immorality thusly possessed. This furthers the notion, in the subtitle of his book...that religion poisons everything.
His formulation at least allows for conceptual space in which an answer can be given. Your's doesn't. Even explicitly religious acts will be reclassified as "motivations", good or bad.
It was formulated in the way that it was expliitly to point out that while it;s difficult to think of something roundly considered to be moral being the sole possession of believers, it's blissfully easy to come up with examples of immorality thusly possessed. This furthers the notion, in the subtitle of his book...that religion poisons everything.
His formulation at least allows for conceptual space in which an answer can be given. Your's doesn't. Even explicitly religious acts will be reclassified as "motivations", good or bad.
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