(August 10, 2023 at 10:59 am)Angrboda Wrote:Or does he understand the difference between a personnel identifier and claiming to know there is a separate entity to whom there is no evidence? As usual his takes are unhinged(August 10, 2023 at 8:50 am)Belacqua Wrote: In nearly every field I know of, the majority of atheists on the Internet have strict standards if they're going to believe that something is true.
We want objective, empirical evidence, which can be verified by independent observers. For years, I've been hearing that this is the only way we can have confidence in truth claims.
Now we have this one quite important exception to what had previously seemed like a rule. Self-ID of gender is not something that empirical science can objectively verify. In fact all the markers previously used for this purpose -- chromosomes, etc. -- are declared to be irrelevant.
I think it's fascinating that the rule of empirical objectivity has exceptions. Obviously, if someone here said, "I am sure that God is all around me because it is self-evident to my experience as a human," none of the regular posters here would take that as the least bit persuasive as evidence. But "I am sure I am not the same gender I was assigned at birth because it is self-evident to my experience as a human" is something we now accept without question.
It makes me wonder what other exceptions there may be, and what other things we will learn to accept without objective evidence. It may turn out that your sympathies for nihilism are correct, and objective evidence may not hold the weight that it once did.
Do you think that most atheists dismiss the notion of clinical depression?

"Change was inevitable"
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Nemo sicut deus debet esse!
![[Image: Canada_Flag.jpg?v=1646203843]](https://images.weserv.nl/?url=cdn.shopify.com%2Fs%2Ffiles%2F1%2F0630%2F5310%2F3332%2Fproducts%2FCanada_Flag.jpg%3Fv%3D1646203843)
“No matter what men think, abortion is a fact of life. Women have always had them; they always have and they always will. Are they going to have good ones or bad ones? Will the good ones be reserved for the rich, while the poor women go to quacks?”
–SHIRLEY CHISHOLM