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Post by metacrock on Dec 25, 2008 16:36:17 GMT
I've treid intorducing Thomas Kuhn on CARM atheist several times and they always meet this with outgrage. One guy called me "scum" for saying that science is a cultural construct.
another said that I was beaten as a child. they assumed I'm a fundie and like I can't read and they assumed I must have been home schooled.
Kuhn was big stuff in the 90s and the 80s. this guy was accepted as a major thinker by everyone include including major scientists. they never heard of him, they don't undertsand what the said. they are totally alarmed by it.
they react the way fundies react when atheists say "there's no proof for your god." or "you have an invisable sky pixie."
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Post by krkey1 on Dec 25, 2008 21:31:39 GMT
Many atheist see the world in terms of conflict. They see religion as superstition and science as reason. To suggest that science is culture driven is pretty much heresy to this crowd. Of course science to a degree is culture and philosophy driven.
A perfect example of science being culture driven is a biology textbook I have from 1859. This book discusses how Negroes are clearly and inferior subspecies of man. Of course no ( or at least a very few) scientist would that view now days and I cannot imagine any textbook endorsing such a view. Culture changed as so did scientific views.
Many scientist are also materialist. To them this means the idea of any nonmaterial object cannot possibly exist, much less have an affect on the material world. A good example of where materialist get crossed up quickly is Near Death Experience studies. None of the materialistic explanations remotely work to explain this, yet they keep on using them again and again because their philosophy teaches that the afterlife explanation cannot work, no matter how much evidence is produced for it.
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Post by metacrock on Dec 26, 2008 4:50:40 GMT
Many atheist see the world in terms of conflict. They see religion as superstition and science as reason. To suggest that science is culture driven is pretty much heresy to this crowd. Of course science to a degree is culture and philosophy driven. A perfect example of science being culture driven is a biology textbook I have from 1859. This book discusses how Negroes are clearly and inferior subspecies of man. Of course no ( or at least a very few) scientist would that view now days and I cannot imagine any textbook endorsing such a view. Culture changed as so did scientific views. Many scientist are also materialist. To them this means the idea of any nonmaterial object cannot possibly exist, much less have an affect on the material world. A good example of where materialist get crossed up quickly is Near Death Experience studies. None of the materialistic explanations remotely work to explain this, yet they keep on using them again and again because their philosophy teaches that the afterlife explanation cannot work, no matter how much evidence is produced for it. those are all good points. Well these atheists are just as angry as you can get. they are sayign I'm scum and stuff. I decided to give them a taste of what they give theists. so I began to recreate the taunts they use, but with science. "there's no proof for your science." amusing because none of them actually used science to prove it. they all used logic, which they had condemned as nothing telling us about the world.
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Post by krkey1 on Dec 26, 2008 5:51:50 GMT
I used to be one of the ranting atheist but I outgrew it primarily through reading sophisticated Christian apologetics and getting to know and care for Christians. I cannot in anyway say that I became a believer but I consider myself now days to be a mellow agnostic. I do not agree with creationism, but I find myself skeptical of evolution kinda fellow.
A lot of atheist see the world in terms of conflict and in extreme black and white. They see it as a conflict between superstition and oppression which they identify as religion and reason which they identify as science and atheism. Of course you are either one or the other. If you are a Theist they will consider you to be a committed one too, which is why they have no problem seeing Columbus as being a typical Christian even if he was hardly practicing. If you are a Theist they have no problem lumping you with all religious groups which is why you get people saying Christianity is no better then say Aztec Theology which is manifestly absurd. Too them one superstition is no better then the other.
Of course if you identify religion as evil then you most combat it. You see heroes fight evil. They want to be heroes, but in a safe and cheap way. They choose to fight an opponent who will not hurt them and they know it, despite their protest to the contrary. That is why many of them are much more muted in open criticism of Islam, they know it is true dangerous.
I have been in the military for almost 12 years and I a veteran of the Iraq war. I have been decorated a few times and I have a combat infantry badge. I am not saying this to brag to make a point. I have many people come up to me when they find out I am the military to say how much they support it, how they wish they could be in the military, but so and so reason prevents it a big etc. They want the respect that comes with being a man of courage and they want to rub up against someone they identify in that role to get the respect from courage without the risk.
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