Hyro's just piling on the fallacies. Mentioning Occam's Razor is just another red herring to distract us from the fact that he's appealing to popularity.
It is not a red herring if you consider the fact that what we are dealing with is subjective. Would you agree that this all boils down to subjective claims and opinions about Dawkins? We're not really getting anywhere, nor will we because we're dealing with opinions. You trying to convince me that he's not abrasive is like trying to "prove" to me that strawberry ice cream tastes better than vanilla ice cream.
That being said, consider this, since you think I made a logical fallacy. When dealing with subjective claims, consensus often becomes a valuable tool and here is why:
For the purposes of a social experiment let's say we have 100 people in a room who have never met before, but have been mingling for several hours getting to know one another. At the end of the night, 1 of those individuals claim that the other 99 are mean to him. The 99 claim that they all get along fine except for the 1, and really it is the 1 individual who is mean, stand-offish, combative, and appears to be delusional with a persecution complex.
Who is the common denominator in all the conflict? The 1 individual, right? Unless there is a massive conspiracy having all the people who never knew each before are now somehow colluding with one another, the answer
reasonably lies with the common denominator, as in
Ockham's Razor.
Likewise if enough people are rubbed the wrong way about Dawkins, including people who generally agree with him, and even HE agrees!, then maybe, just maybe Rrhavin, what I'm saying might have some foundation.
It still boils to opinion, sure, but there is a large consensus that one cannot be glib about.
You think he's the bee's knee's. Great! I really don't care enough about it to be arguing over it. I disagree and I said what I wanted to say. Since we aren't dealing with objective claims, it's just going to go around in meaningless circles which is why I am wanting to disengage and focus on other topics.
Edited by Hyroglyphx, : No reason given.
"Three passions, simple but overwhelmingly strong, have governed my life: the longing for love, the search for knowledge and unbearable pity for the suffering of mankind." -- Bertrand Russell
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