[ExI] Belief in maths

[samantha]

Fred C. Moulton wrote:
> 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.
>   
The theologies that posit a logically impossible god I have an 
absolutist position on as these are on their face absurd and can never 
ever be true.  I have no absolute position on whether there is an 
intelligent being powerful enough to create entire universes and fiddle 
with them at whatever level it will.  Indeed I have a pretty strong 
belief that such a being is in fact possible.   So there may well be one 
already somewhere is space-time or outside this space-time.    However, 
I have no evidence that one exists and is behind this universe and 
remotely cares where you or I believe such to be the case.  

- samantha
> 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
>
>
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>   

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