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Revision as of 18:48, 15 December 2005 by Alienus (talk | contribs) (→4.246.30.203)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)Welcome!
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- Mailer Diablo 01:16, 26 Mar 2005 (UTC)
To do: Social contract Secular humanism Antihumanism Self-evidence
Follow up on reverts to: Eliminative materialism various Dennett-related pages.
Ayn Rand's atheism
- a number of philosophers who completely agree with Rand on the topic of atheism nonetheless find her basis for it laughable and frankly embarrassing.
What do you have in mind here? Her basis was that theism is arbitrary, and occasionally she also said there are contradictions in the concept of god. Could you be specific? Michael Hardy 02:09, 29 November 2005 (UTC)
- Life is short, so I'll speak bluntly. Dismissing theism as arbitrary might apply to fideism, but it fails to address the numerous, ostensibly rational arguments in favor of other forms of theism. Granted, these arguments aren't necessarily any good, but that's all the more reason to refute them instead of just acting as if atheism were obviously true. Given the number of theists out there, atheism must not be so obvious. Furthermore, some of these arguments come with rather comprehensive, although not necessarily correct, worldviews with their own apparently consistent ontology, which quite soundly refutes the ideas that they're just arbitrary. Claiming contradictions in specific definitions of God is a fairly useless tactic because, even when successful, it just spawns new and more nebulous definitions. It also doesn't help that she was lukewarm to evolution, leaving her with a dangerously incomplete worldview. In short, she was lazy and overconfident. This attitude really pisses off philosophers, especially those who are atheists on a sounder basis. Understandably, they view Rand as an easy target, a natural straw man for apologists to trivially defeat, then claim a defeat of all atheism. In short, they see Rand as the sort of ally that they'd rather have as an enemy. Interestingly enough, this happens to be exactly how I see Michael Shermer. Does that answer your question? Alienus 06:54, 29 November 2005 (UTC)
Hello. I haven't been back to this page for a while, but I just read your comments. I think if you're going to put something about these matters in an article, you should be specific. Your comments were terse enough to make it clear that it wouldn't take very many words: state which philosophers take those views (a few of the most prominent ones) and what their objections are. Michael Hardy 19:48, 9 December 2005 (UTC)
- Thanks for the response. Let me see what verifiable sources I can dig up on this. Alienus 20:07, 9 December 2005 (UTC)
BTW, do you know anything about Wallace Matson? Former head of the philosophy department at Berkeley. I first heard of him in connection with his writings on atheism (but I haven't read any). I later heard that he wrote a favorable review of Ayn Rand's Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology, but I've never seen that either. Michael Hardy 00:07, 12 December 2005 (UTC)
With a few noted exceptions, most academic philosophers ignore Rand. However, you're right that Matson did write some stuff on Rand, such as http://www.noblesoul.com/orc/books/other/ptoar.html. The review on Amazon says, "But the nadir of this collection is probably Wallace Matson's "Rand on Concepts" which claims to reformulate the Objectivist theory of concept-formation in a way that "preserves what is of value in Rand's treatment" and then proceeds to get rid of concepts altogether, claiming they are a dispensable "mysterious and subjective... third entity between word and thing"!" There's more at http://enlightenment.supersaturated.com/essays/text/bryanregister/universalityofconcepts.html. So, what about him? Alienus 00:29, 12 December 2005 (UTC)
Narnia: Christian Parallels
I changed the end of the Christian parallels section on you. You were right, Evangelism is a common enough term (perhaps more so among people likely to visit the narnia article). Anyway, I removed the sentence explaining what it was and instead wikified it. Hope that's still okay with you. Boy, that article is attracting some interesting character. Lsommerer 22:03, 13 December 2005 (UTC)
- I don't have a problem with your change. I did tweak it slightly to lower-case evangelism and preface it with "Christian". If you think the adjective is unnecessary, feel free to drop it.
- As for the current interest by characters, it shouldn't be any surprise. Lewis was, in life, an odd little person who gained a reputation that exceeded him. Here's a quote from C.S. Lewis and the Search for Rational Religion by John Beversluis:
- "Sections devoted to biography read like hagiography. We seldom encounter a mere fact about Lewis; accounts of his behavior, attitudes, and personal relationships are instead reported in the wide-eyed manner of the impressionable disciple. To describe him as a wonderful friend is a lamentable understatement; we must be assured that no one ever was a better friend. To praise him as brilliant in debate is entirely too lukewarm a compliment; we are told that C. S. Lewis could have matched wits with any man who ever lived. To endorse him as a Christian apologist of the first rank is altogether inadequate; his apocalyptic Vision of Christianity must be likened to that of St. John on the Isle of Patmos. After a while, one longs for patches of sunlight to dispel the reverential haze. One tires of enduring these excesses and of having to plow through equally ecstatic testimonials in book after book."
- I found this quote at http://atheism.about.com/od/cslewisnarnia/a/apologist.htm, which is one of a group of brutally negative articles about Lewis. I also found references suggesting that he had an illicit sexual relationship with the older woman who lived with him (http://www.aslan.demon.co.uk/shadow.htm and http://www.mezomorf.com/movies/news-11833.html), though nothing even hints at this on his hagiographic Misplaced Pages article. *sigh*
- I don't want to string this guy up. I just want the articles to be somewhat in touch with reality. I hope that's not too much to attempt. Alienus 23:09, 13 December 2005 (UTC)
4.246.30.203
Hi there, I noticed you revered edits by this user on Polygamy. I ran into some questionable edits from this IP myself, but I lack the knowledge to make the correct adustments (perhaps complete reverts). Could you take a look? Thanks. -- Solitude\ 09:28, 15 December 2005 (UTC)
- Thanks for pointing this out. As you've probably seen by now, I did find other edits by this person that needed reversion or heavy editing. They're very, very biased towards Mormonism, to the point of being willing to hide unpleasant but well-supported facts.Alienus 18:48, 15 December 2005 (UTC)