Actually, this is a review of Sam’s book by Skatje Myers, PZ’s 20-year-old daughter. Pretty perceptive for a young person.
1. Utilitarianism is right, but not any more justifiable than anything else. But who cares what other people think, anyway?
2. Because utilitarianism is right, we don’t have to be loopy post-modernists.
3. Science can tell us what makes us happy. Here’s a smattering of scientific studies about the brain.
Why in the hell do they give out book deals so easily? This book isn’t about convincing others, or providing novel ideas. It’s about pandering to atheists with very little knowledge of philosophy and ethics and an abundance of arrogance, telling them science is with them, and then reiterating how immoral people who like FGM and throwing acid in girls’ faces are and how we don’t have to listen to them because We Are Right. This is nothing but a convoluted rehashing of utilitarianism that still falls to the same old criticisms, and an immense waste of time unless you really like a good ignorant circlejerk."
Like I said, pretty perceptive girl.
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"...pretty perceptive girl."
ReplyDeleteWow, we don't see you compliment atheists very often! It's good that you can ignore your differences and acknowledge something you agree on.
I think the greatest compliment that I give to atheists is to acknowledge that any given atheist can be or might be just as morally correct or "good" as any given Christian. Which is to say, not very good at all but . . .
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure if you are serious because I don't see that as a compliment at all... it just means that you are not stupid enough to claim that to be "good" you need to be Christian.
ReplyDeleteIn other words, it only means that you agree with the principle that there are both "good" and "bad" Christians and "good" and "bad" non-Christians, be it Atheists or not.
No?
I guess.
ReplyDeleteNo wait. I don't think that those who have been chosen by God to be part of His family can be good without Him. I think that He has chosen the worst of humanity, not all the worst but some of the worst to be saved. For it is only those who seem able to recognise their need for salvation.
ReplyDeleteSo many implications and potential contradictions in such a short paragraph...
ReplyDeleteAccording to you, God chose some people and made them in such a way that they cannot be good on their own. The implied idea is that they can only be good after they believe in God and then God will help them, but he will not help them believe, or perhaps he will because he chose them after all...
Plus, it's mostly the worst that can be saved, were chosen to be saved, and want to be saved. So, since God created everybody, he made a bunch of people that are nice, but will never believe in him, and he knew that, but he created them anyway for... torturing them for eternity?
In any case however, since the Christian God does not exist, for sure, it's all irrelevant...
Yes yes, I do claim that the Christian God does not exist now. I decided this was my new official position. It can still be entertaining to say 'If God exists then...' as I just did but that's it, it's just for fun.
Thanks to you by the way! I thought a lot about the discussion we had on evidence for God, and what would convince me. After careful evaluation, I now consider that it's impossible for the traditional Christian Bible God to exist. So no evidence could ever convince me that he does exists. To me, he has been proven not to exist, and actually impossible to exist. We cannot go back from such position. It would be illogical.
RS32 - Value-free Science?
ReplyDeletehttp://www.rationallyspeakingpodcast.org/show/rs32-value-free-science.html
RS37 - The Science and Philosophy of Happiness
http://www.rationallyspeakingpodcast.org/show/rs37-the-science-and-philosophy-of-happiness.html