[ExI] atheists de-baptize unbelievers:

[Stathis Papaioannou]

2010/7/21 darren shawn greer <dgreer_68 at hotmail.com>
>
> >They're not all bad but they're still wrong. Truth is not a matter of
> >utility: if the belief in a flat Earth could be shown to have a
> >calming, positive influence on the life of the believer it is no less
> >a false belief for that. The flat-earthers are generally harmless folk
> >and perhaps we should leave them alone, but if they had vast amounts
> >of money and influence and went about successfully turning people to
> >their view they should be vigorously opposed.
>
>
>
>
> If it were a matter of something as concrete as a flat earth, then you simply show a picture of a round earth and there ends your argument. Any further discussion of flat earth is simply delusion. But it's unfortunately not a matter of the physical universe. There is neither anything in the universe that points to the necessity of a creator, nor anything that absolutely precludes one. As Huston Smith says, "Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence."

There are infinitely many propositions that can neither be proved nor
disproved, and the way we deal with them is for the most part to
ignore them. Have you ever tried arguing with someone who is
clinically diagnosed with a psychotic disorder? They have a ready
answer to every objection you raise to their delusional beliefs.

Einstein was a believer in a God, because the laws he uncovered were
so immutable and precise he could not imagine a process of physical
creation without one. Was Einstein deluded? Perhaps. He still
contributed greatly to modern science, as I doubt anyone here will
argue.

Einstein was an agnostic. He specifically denied believing in a
personal God. Still, it is possible to be deluded about one part od
reality and still function relatively normally. In psychiatry that
forms the distinction between delusional disorder and paranoid
schizophrenia.


--
Stathis Papaioannou