[ExI] Belief in maths

[Fred C. Moulton]

On Wed, 2010-07-07 at 07:05 -0400, darren shawn greer wrote:
>  
> It would be much more logical for Christopher Hitchins and Richard
> Dawkins to simply say, I don't know. 

It should be pointed out that Dawkins does not say he has absolute
knowledge.  He has a nuanced view which is summarized in chapter 2 of
his book The God Delusion.  It is not an absolutist view.  

I have read more writings and listened to more lectures by Dawkins than
I have Hitchens thus I am not going to comment on Hitchens.

What I will suggest is that if people want to be taken seriously they
avoid giving the implication that they think atheists as a group have an
absolutist position on this matter.  If a particular individual has an
absolutist view then please provide a citation when criticizing that
person.

And there is a helpful heuristic to use when considering statements
which contain references to gods or creators; replace the term in
question with "the footrest at home which is a pink invisible elephant
wearing a yellow tutu and having a mass of 100 suns".  Thus the
statement "You can not disprove the existence of some undefined and
vague creator" becomes "You can not disprove the existence of the
footrest at home which is a pink invisible elephant wearing a yellow
tutu and having a mass of 100 suns".  Since it is a heuristic it might
not be applicable in every circumstance however it is often useful in
demonstrating the level of BS of which much of the talk about gods and
creators consists.

Fred