Quote:
Originally Posted by Original Position
Where do you think the new Atheists were wrong?
They wildly overestimate theism's damage to cognition and downplay the fact that rationalists are just as debilitated by ideology as any god fearing person.
People compartmentalize well. We can have batty ideas about demons or 9-11 conspiracies but be entirely functional in another field.
Atheists can be just as bedazzled and venal as Jimmy Swaggarts. Take the Neocons and the invasion of Iraq. Very ideologically driven, and entirely and predictably wrong. But they were very sure of themselves. Stalin, Pol Pot, and Henry Kissinger are even better examples of how rotten and wrong atheists can be. (Just guessing that K has no faith.)
Those are foundational problems with the NA. Then you look at the actual practice of say Sam Harris, and it is mendacious, pseudo-intellectual crap. I read a chapter of his about how all religions are wrong, but Islam is even wronger. It made really sophomoric historical errors. His mistakes have been explained to him repeatedly, but he keeps beating the drum and selling the books. Some years ago I launched a thread to vent at Harris, it's back there somewhere.
In my view, atheism does not really have much utility. We win the argument about origins -- no one knows where the cosmos came from -- but beyond that, theists can be just as kind and shrewd as anyone else.
If I had to take a long car ride with someone, I'll take Pope Francis over the NAs any day.