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Tal is just trying to cure you all of anti-anti-religionism and Dawkinsism. This anti-religionism and Dawkinsism is a complex of ideas that seems to spread among those disenchanted with religion despite being not literally true or even well argued. They spread because of other factors. Tal is just trying to help inoculate against these ideas and clear those Dawkins ideas from our souls (or thetans or memes or ..let's not call them memes shall we--despite all I just said).

If only we would accept that not only religion but secularism is a bunch of nonsense then we would be cured. Actually, no we wouldn't, because if we look hard enough and are as unsympathetic as possible in our reading of thinkers then we can deconstruct anything.

Falsificationism can't be falsified.
Verificationism can't be verified.
Rationality can't be defended rationally (its all circular).
Science can't be tested scientifically.
Knowing the truth only makes us more unhappy and secularism humanism doesn't make us better people.

In fact, the whole set of things that we think will make us happy are called into question by Barry Schwartz. But wait, Schwartz's ideas were defended by using scientific surveys which uncritically assume a thoroughgoing rationalism and uncritical acceptance of naïve scientific methods. Those surveys were analyzed using a Bayesian approach to statistics which has no solid philosophical foundation.

So we must be cured of all philosophical or social ideas...we must be anti-anti-religion and anti-anti-anti-secular, anti-anti-anti-popperism, positivism, supernaturalism, Mormonism, etc. (I am just losing track of how many antis)

and

and then be cured of all that....and then? *Om*

Tal is a second order witch doctor these days and he wants to cure you of the medicine given to you by whatever the last witch doctor gave you. But who will cure us of the Tal Bachman medicine? (I almost said "memoplex"--sorry).

Maybe Tal himself can do it.

I am waiting. Cure me! I need a third order witch doctor.

(personally I supsect that Tal still has a "secularism = communism = evil" meme still stuck way down somewhere. Thanks Esra Taft!)

LOL

Awesome. I'm skeptical of skepticism, now. Where does it all lead?

Reminds me of some articles I read recently. Paranoid Style in American Science

Radical skepticism, creationism, paranoia...

Billed as "the definitive response to the New Atheists," it's the first such book to come from a mainstream publisher, the Crown Forum division of Random House. An extended excerpt has already earned a prominent spot in the April issue of Harper's. And its author—the erudite and infuriating David Berlinski—isn't anything like a Christian doctrinaire. Berlinski is a critic, a contrarian, and—by his own admission—a crank. But he is not a religious man. He's a zealous skeptic, more concerned with false gods than real ones. According to The Devil's Delusion, the emergence of the New Atheists—i.e., Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, and the others who have lately ridiculed the belief in God—marks the consolidation of science as its own religion, a hateful "militant church" that demands strict adherence to the First Commandment. The scientists speak of incontrovertible fact, but Berlinski wants to show otherwise; he subjects scientific belief to his own rigorous investigation and finds it riddled with uncertainty.

Doesn't this sound like a couple of the difficult personalities over on MADB? I've noticed that DCP is something of a fan of David Berlinski, citing him a couple of times in the recent evolution/ID threads. No wonder!

Maybe DCP can eventually warm up to Tal again?

I am waiting. Cure me! I need a third order witch doctor.

Here I am. The LDS Church is true.

It's easy Tarski - just stop thinking about these things, and play rugby.

Tal Bachman wrote:It's easy Tarski - just stop thinking about these things, and play rugby.

Wow, wish I could do something that takes upwards of a few weeks to produce that would let me just sit around all day and slack.

Of course, my dads not able to give me my first deal so oh well. A peasant I shall be.

Fatalism Sucks.

All of this venom against Tal. Why?

Trevor wrote:All of this venom against Tal. Why?

I don't see much venom in Tal's opinions.
And it is important to remember, he is entitled to his opinions even some of us think they are boneheaded opinions.
Even so in the name of JesusChrist,
Amen

Trevor wrote:All of this venom against Tal. Why?

I wondered the same thing. Could it be a little jealousy?

harmony wrote:

Trevor wrote:All of this venom against Tal. Why?

I wondered the same thing. Could it be a little jealousy?

Not according to Tal. It's just a simple matter of disagreement.

(And of the things I've read Tal say recently, this one I agree with). Why can't people give others the benefit of the doubt?