tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37936507.post1962420280193910790..comments2023-08-08T10:25:47.529+01:00Comments on McCabism: Dawkins and Krauss on science and religionGordon McCabehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09151162643523937086noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37936507.post-72350867589340893112007-06-29T13:22:00.000+01:002007-06-29T13:22:00.000+01:00Presumably poetry only achieves any value once it ...Presumably poetry only achieves any value once it leads to what may be described as a profound state of mind in the beholder of said poetry. Religion also deals specifically in profound states of mond. I would have to be an idiot to wish to prove the experience of profundity arising from looking at a certain paining to an outselder doubting the profound state- a state which exists in that moment and for all manner of reasons will not be exactly duplicated. Likewise presumably a Buddhist monk will presumably have little interest in proving to a doubtful third person the reality of an enlightenment experience. In both the above cases, the doubting outsider is to be pitied.Andrewhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11708539533684206357noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37936507.post-82683606847904172582007-06-28T17:48:00.000+01:002007-06-28T17:48:00.000+01:00Well, anthropologists do analyse literature, I gue...Well, anthropologists do analyse literature, I guess. Religion makes direct declarative claims about the nature of the human-independent world, whereas poetry generally doesn't, so many of the claims of religion are open to scientific refutation in a way that poetry isn't.Gordon McCabehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09151162643523937086noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37936507.post-91166173397338300312007-06-28T14:19:00.000+01:002007-06-28T14:19:00.000+01:00What about the approach science should make toward...What about the approach science should make towards poetry?Andrewhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11708539533684206357noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37936507.post-59025208239239584432007-06-27T23:10:00.000+01:002007-06-27T23:10:00.000+01:00Sometimes you think you can see a lurker out of th...Sometimes you think you can see a lurker out of the corner of your eye, but when you turn to look, he's gone.Gordon McCabehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09151162643523937086noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37936507.post-81685231968416837742007-06-27T21:51:00.000+01:002007-06-27T21:51:00.000+01:00Dawkins' mistake is a common one made in weblog co...Dawkins' mistake is a common one made in weblog comments as well. There's really no point in engaging such a Creationist for his own sake. The true audience is the set of lurkers who will observe the discussion. Because condenscension, arrogance, and ad hominem attacks are the stanard refugee of someone losing an argument on merit, there is a natural and legitimate tendency to make a judgement on those grounds, if the subject is otherwise opaque, which is what many of the lurkers, the ones who are still open to persuasion, will do.Susan's Husbandhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02862667802025231163noreply@blogger.com