RE: Dawkins loses humanist title
April 21, 2021 at 1:49 pm
(This post was last modified: April 21, 2021 at 1:59 pm by Anomalocaris.)
If a fact has utility as a cudgel, but not a rebuttal, against an otherwise sound position, it only undermines the otherwise sound position if the defense or furtherance of the position is seen to nonetheless rely on the suppression of the fact. It elevates the cudgel to something approaching legitimacy.
Rather the position would be strengthen if the inconvenient fact is reiterated while the case for it not being an rebuttal allowed to crystallize in the popular mind. When the crystallization occurs, the cudgel will be as easily dismissed as cobweb.
If the case that the fact is not an rebuttal can not be made clear enough in popular minds to allow the position to advance, the society in general can certainly stand to loses more by advancing the position anyway through suppression of the fact than allowing the position to languish until a more opportune time.
That I wonder if that is something AHA considered or even cared to consider.
Rather the position would be strengthen if the inconvenient fact is reiterated while the case for it not being an rebuttal allowed to crystallize in the popular mind. When the crystallization occurs, the cudgel will be as easily dismissed as cobweb.
If the case that the fact is not an rebuttal can not be made clear enough in popular minds to allow the position to advance, the society in general can certainly stand to loses more by advancing the position anyway through suppression of the fact than allowing the position to languish until a more opportune time.
That I wonder if that is something AHA considered or even cared to consider.
