- DanielCC
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Re: Putting Internet Atheist in their place
A few remarks:
1. Atheist philosophers tend to make a big deal over the Problem of Evil which, at least in its normal logical and evidential modes, has never been a major concern for Classical Theists (if anything it collapses into the more interesting problem of whether God is constrained by his nature to create the best of all possible worlds).
2. Quentin Smith once said that the two ways to argue for atheism were from evil and from scientific cosmology. The former has been touched on above and his arguments for the latter are bad (why would God want a universe that behaves randomly at its beginning?) to the extent that he gets called out by other atheists on the subject. If Smith’s statement were true then it would mean that professional atheist philosophers differ at best only in degree from random troll bloggers like ex-apologist or outshinethesun.
The main difference is that even when this is the case the professional atheist knows to avoiding making general stupid statements about metaphysics.
3. Atheism suffers from what might be termed ‘the lack of illustrious forefathers’ problem – that is that very few of the great philosophers of history have actually been atheists. This is why many atheists have to rely on a meta-narrative to provide back-drop for their position.
4. It is the mark of a bad philosopher e.g. Michael Martin that they should think parody objections to the Ontological Arguments have any validity. ‘Couldn’t the argument be adapted to show that this contingent being exists of its own necessity?’
Last edited by DanielCC (8/11/2015 5:18 am)
- AKG
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Re: Putting Internet Atheist in their place
You guys are right. We should not focus on people who don't want to learn in the 1st place. But my main issue is unfortunatelty these guys are spreading more and more misinformation about Classical Theism with their videos and the general public is sadly okay with this as Dawkins books showed. A friend of mine even said before she read it that Dawkins is one of the greatest philosophers( I think every philosopher from Socrates to Antony Flew just felt disgraced when she said that, and just typing it makes me feel unclean and in need of a shower).
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Thread Starter- iwpoe
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Re: Putting Internet Atheist in their place
Your friend gauges philosophers by how well they match her opinions, even though she's got no philosophical expertise. Why would you expect to be able to turn her head with better arguments? Even if you could, a person who thinks like that is unlikely to be pursued by reasons and can't be expected to have actually been brought about through anything that would honour your efforts. Like pearls before swine...
You want peers not fans.
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It is precisely “values” that are the powerless and threadbare mask of the objectification of beings, an objectification that has become flat and devoid of background. No one dies for mere values.
~Martin Heidegger
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Re: Putting Internet Atheist in their place
Yep, and the sad thing is she told she wants to major in philosophy when she goes to college. Not a good start I would say. But is there anyway we can stop this massive spread of caricatures that the gnus give Classical Theism.
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Thread Starter- Mysterious Brony
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Re: Putting Internet Atheist in their place
Well, as far as I know I don't see how we can stop this massive spread of caricatures. Even if you do reply to the GNU types that they are wrong there is always a chance that more GNUs will troll and spread more misinformation. Perhaps we can at least provide the accurate information and hopefully the sincere-seekers will distinguish truth from falsity. Also, have you read about the conversion story of the Raving Atheist? Perhaps his conversion can help on how to approach GNUs.