RE: What is wrong with theistic beliefs?
November 17, 2018 at 5:56 pm
(This post was last modified: November 17, 2018 at 5:58 pm by The Grand Nudger.)
(November 17, 2018 at 5:51 pm)Aliza Wrote: I guess my point is that if the believers in question were going to do something shitty, it was independent of what the book said. They ultimately do what they want to do, whether that's a good thing or a shitty thing. If the theist makes an argument based on the book, it's just a facade. The book is the curtain they hide behind.Oh, or sure. Haters gotta hate. The only difference between a theistic hater and any other hater is that the theistic hater believes that his hate is sanctioned by the lord of the cosmos.
If the atheist and the theist agree on the outcome, then we don't have a problem. If we both agree that civil rights for all is the just thing to do and you don't like my reasoning for agreeing with you, then we have a totally different problem; that's a completely different value system that should be addressed separately from the point I'm trying to make now.
If the atheist and the theist disagree on the outcome, then I say a more appropriate tactic for persuading the theist is not to attack the book because the book is not the cause, and doing so polarizes the theist against you. "People of all races seem to be able to earn medical degrees, so how can you say that one race is inherently 'better' than the other race?" Keep chipping away at that and if you successfully persuade them, then they'll change their understanding of the book to match what they've decided.
That's an impressive and consequential notion.
(though I'd be a little bit more skeptical that the theists hate actually was independent of the magic book - magic books routinely assert hateful things..they're not exactly coming up with their shit whole cloth.)
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