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Author Topic:   Books By Creationists?
ZenMonkey
Member (Idle past 4531 days)
Posts: 428
From: Portland, OR USA
Joined: 09-25-2009


Message 79 of 142 (613538)
04-26-2011 1:05 AM
Reply to: Message 55 by slevesque
04-25-2011 3:19 PM


slevesque writes:
And because evolution is crucial for a consistent atheism, then you could say that you had no choice but to see evolution in the evidence.
No, not quite. To paraphrase what Dr Dawkins actually said, evolution allows one to be an atheist without being intellectually dishonest. Before Darwin, there was simply no plausible mechanism to explain the complexity of life. There was no way to account for it other than to believe that some sort of supernatural agency was responsible. Afterwards, that particular argument for the existence of God no longer held water. You can put forth others, but that one is dead. So understanding evolution doesn't exactly require one to be an atheist, but it does make it possible.
I also want to point out that you might not be understanding the term "debunk" in the same way that most of the others on this forum do. To debunk is to show by reason and evidence that a particular idea is wrong. It's the same thing as reading critically. Now if you were to read a book and simply refuse to accept what you were reading, for no other reason than that you didn't want to believe it, then that would be intellectually dishonest. You'd be lying to yourself. What would be truly dishonest would be if you dismissed a book without knowing anything about credibility of either the author or his or her position, and yet presented yourself as if you had in fact given it a fair analysis.
Edited by Adminnemooseus, : Reset rather lengthy "signature" to smaller (1) font size.

I have no time for lies and fantasy, and neither should you. Enjoy or die.
-John Lydon
Reality has a well-known liberal bias.
-Steven Colbert
I never meant to say that the Conservatives are generally stupid. I meant to say that stupid people are generally Conservative. I believe that is so obviously and universally admitted a principle that I hardly think any gentleman will deny it.
- John Stuart Mill

This message is a reply to:
 Message 55 by slevesque, posted 04-25-2011 3:19 PM slevesque has replied

Replies to this message:
 Message 81 by ringo, posted 04-26-2011 1:43 AM ZenMonkey has not replied
 Message 83 by slevesque, posted 04-26-2011 1:58 AM ZenMonkey has not replied

  
ZenMonkey
Member (Idle past 4531 days)
Posts: 428
From: Portland, OR USA
Joined: 09-25-2009


Message 131 of 142 (613675)
04-26-2011 5:32 PM
Reply to: Message 129 by dwise1
04-26-2011 3:50 PM


Re: Evidence
dwise1 writes:
There is the context. Now here's the actual quote from page 6:
quote:
An atheist before Darwin could have said, following Hume: "I have no explanation for complex biological design. All I know is that God isn't a good explanation, so we must wait and hope that somebody comes up with a better one." I can't help feeling that such a position, though logically sound, would have left one feeling pretty unsatisfied, and that although atheism might have been logically tenable before Darwin, Darwin made it possible to be an intellectually fulfilled atheist.
So Dawkins did not state that evolution is a requirement for being an atheist, but rather that evolution does provide an alternative explanation for complex biological design, and a damned good one at that. Nor does that mean that an atheist has to accept that particular explanation. He could hold out for what he feels might be a better explanation that's yet to be discovered. He could even actively reject and oppose evolution. Just because there is an explanation does not mean that everybody will accept it.
Exactly. An atheist could believe that evolution as it is understood today is correct as far as it goes, but that it's also insufficient as a complete explanation for the diversity of life. Similarly, a physicist in the the 19th century may have affirmed that Newton's theory of gravitation was correct to a certain extent, but that it was also insufficient to explain the natural phenomena that it addressed. As in fact Einstein did indeed do. We could be awaiting the Einstein of biology.
Or an atheist would be perfectly self-consistent to say that he simply didn't know enough about biology to say whether or not ToE was "true," but that he did know enough about how the world works to be fairly certain that a supernatural explanation was not going to be satisfactory.
I believe that a proper scientific attitude toward ToE is to say that it appears to be correct as far as it goes, but it can always be modified to account for as yet undiscovered facts.

I have no time for lies and fantasy, and neither should you. Enjoy or die.
-John Lydon
Reality has a well-known liberal bias.
-Steven Colbert
I never meant to say that the Conservatives are generally stupid. I meant to say that stupid people are generally Conservative. I believe that is so obviously and universally admitted a principle that I hardly think any gentleman will deny it.
- John Stuart Mill

This message is a reply to:
 Message 129 by dwise1, posted 04-26-2011 3:50 PM dwise1 has not replied

Replies to this message:
 Message 133 by slevesque, posted 04-26-2011 5:58 PM ZenMonkey has replied

  
ZenMonkey
Member (Idle past 4531 days)
Posts: 428
From: Portland, OR USA
Joined: 09-25-2009


Message 134 of 142 (613682)
04-26-2011 6:04 PM
Reply to: Message 133 by slevesque
04-26-2011 5:58 PM


Re: Evidence
slevesque writes:
When I say evolution here, I am talking about the fact of evolution, not the mechanism of evolution. (when I want to talk about the mechanism, I usually say Neo-Darwinian evolution)
So when I say a complete atheistic worldview must include evolution, I am meaning that the atheist must believe in the fact of evolution. ''biological complexity evolved from simpler forms with time''.
The distinction is important: some atheists do in fact question the mechanism, but I have not yet seen an atheist question if evolution happened at all. In his worldview, evolution must have happened, it is just a matter of knowing why.
I'll happily agree with this. I think that the physical evidence for the fact that evolution has happened and continues to happen is so overwhelming that it seems intellectually perverse to deny it. But that's just me.
By the way, slev, of all the people on this forum, you're still my candidate for Theist Most Likely to Finally Accept Evolution. Please take that as a compliment.

I have no time for lies and fantasy, and neither should you. Enjoy or die.
-John Lydon
Reality has a well-known liberal bias.
-Steven Colbert
I never meant to say that the Conservatives are generally stupid. I meant to say that stupid people are generally Conservative. I believe that is so obviously and universally admitted a principle that I hardly think any gentleman will deny it.
- John Stuart Mill

This message is a reply to:
 Message 133 by slevesque, posted 04-26-2011 5:58 PM slevesque has not replied

  
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