tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8310450667755637519.post75331151354496633..comments2023-10-14T09:40:06.690-05:00Comments on Jean Kazez: "Soft Atheism"Jean Kazezhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00592593002719828153noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8310450667755637519.post-32273404133868624262014-06-08T22:00:30.272-05:002014-06-08T22:00:30.272-05:00Kitcher misunderstands Dawkins. When Dawkins chall...Kitcher misunderstands Dawkins. When Dawkins challenges religion on the literal level (e.g. in The God Delusion), yes he challenges literalists, but he also challenges Kitcher's religiously "refined" believers on stories they know cannot be true. I've never seen a believer respond in the 1st person: "I am unfazed by TGD skewering literalism because I believe my doctrines Dave Rickshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03131126038425198891noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8310450667755637519.post-49392333630281344232014-05-17T13:27:12.517-05:002014-05-17T13:27:12.517-05:00Particular religions will change and wither away, ...Particular religions will change and wither away, but religion in the sense of a desire for connection with some transcendent reality (keeping in mind that what "transcendent" implies is open to discussion) will never go away -- Kitcher will never get his wish on that score.<br /><br />I agree with Gary Gutting that you can't logically get from the fact that we have no good evidenceAeolushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15772583359516799143noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8310450667755637519.post-56183853920363142422014-05-16T13:34:22.051-05:002014-05-16T13:34:22.051-05:00The religious differences argument seems to say th...The religious differences argument seems to say there are no ways of knowing anything about religious objects of reference (in this case deities), therefore what's all the fuss about in terms of who is right and who isn't?<br /><br />The moral differences argument says something similar and yet we are reluctant to dump moral claims outright, to be moral atheists as it were. In fact, it Stuart W. Mirskyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12247784373895331173noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8310450667755637519.post-89830811177784932822014-05-16T09:53:31.014-05:002014-05-16T09:53:31.014-05:00I was thinking about the same issue. The cultural...I was thinking about the same issue. The cultural differences argument doesn't establish that there are no moral truths, so why does the religious differences argument establish that there are no religious truths? The religious differences argument does seem better to me, but I can't tell you why at the moment. I'd like to see what Kitcher says about this in his forthcoming book. I Jean Kazezhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06297159994901018071noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8310450667755637519.post-44418808375772569402014-05-16T09:40:30.864-05:002014-05-16T09:40:30.864-05:00Doesn't the same thing apply, at least to a si...Doesn't the same thing apply, at least to a significant degree, to moral beliefs? Different societies and cultures develop and elaborate often quite diverse moral judgments and standards which their members profess to believe in. How do we know the right ones? Are there even "right" ones to know? How deep must we burrow to find some common thread to which we can all adhere or is Stuart W. Mirskyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12247784373895331173noreply@blogger.com