I find Jim Devine's argument to be somewhat confused. When an atheist says that she disbelieves in the existence of God, this isn't much different than if Jim Devine were to assert that he disbelieves in the existence of Zeus, Thor, or the Invisible Pink Unicorn. Given the lack of evidence for the existence of any of these entities, we are entitled (invoking Ockam's Razor) to disbelieve in their existence, even though we may not be able to conclusively disprove the existence of these alleged beings. I know of very few people who would say that they are agnostics concerning the existence of the ancient Greek gods.
-- Jim Devine <jdevine03 at gmail.com> wrote: Return-Path: <lbo-talk-bounces at lbo-talk.org> Received: from mx12.nyc.untd.com (mx12.nyc.untd.com [10.140.24.72])
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Mon, 30 May 2005 08:33:21 -0700 (PDT) Received: by 10.36.31.13 with HTTP; Mon, 30 May 2005 08:33:21 -0700 (PDT) Message-ID: <93dbbd490505300833692210ba at mail.gmail.com> Date: Mon, 30 May 2005 08:33:21 -0700 From: Jim Devine <jdevine03 at gmail.com> To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] Rushdie: Just give me that old-time atheism! In-Reply-To: <p06210200bec0d8a501dc at 10.1.188.205> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Disposition: inline References: <p06210200bec0d8a501dc at 10.1.188.205> Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-MIME-Autoconverted: from quoted-printable to 8bit by infothecary.org id
j4UFXMqP018466 X-BeenThere: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list Reply-To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org List-Id: lbo-talk.lbo-talk.org List-Unsubscribe: <http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk>,
<mailto:lbo-talk-request at lbo-talk.org?subject=unsubscribe> List-Archive: <http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/pipermail/lbo-talk> List-Post: <mailto:lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org> List-Help: <mailto:lbo-talk-request at lbo-talk.org?subject=help> List-Subscribe: <http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk>,
<mailto:lbo-talk-request at lbo-talk.org?subject=subscribe> Sender: lbo-talk-bounces at lbo-talk.org Errors-To: lbo-talk-bounces at lbo-talk.org X-ContentStamp: 7:3:4140836733 X-MAIL-INFO:2889e8594d69094d159c2515ac855c31add1957cd825d8adf85571a86161b171686108593871684d48e829e869ac2515a1e80d X-UNTD-Peer-Info: 66.117.159.5|infothecary.org|infothecary.org|lbo-talk-bounces at lbo-talk.org X-UNTD-UBE:-1 the problem is that atheism is fallacious, based on faith that there are no god, goddess, gods, goddesses, or a combination of the above (i.e., no unseen forces that conciously shape reality). Instead, agnosticism is the way to go. We have to admit that it's only a working hypothesis that supernatural beings don't exist. It's a working hypothesis that's worked pretty well over the years.
And the atheism of the Young Hegelians (i.e., that ridding the world of religion would improve it markedly) should be rejected. The old guy thought that improving the world -- i.e., getting rid of capitalism and the like -- would undermine the need for religion. JD
On 5/30/05, Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> wrote:
> Toronto Star - May 23, 2005
>
> Just give me that old-time atheism!
> By Salman Rushdie
-- Jim Devine
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