tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8162162762021468524.post7136930924518854955..comments2023-10-22T13:06:49.363+02:00Comments on Daily Atheist: The necessity of combating relativismAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13743460535956343491noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8162162762021468524.post-37388122771024643182008-04-18T05:49:00.000+02:002008-04-18T05:49:00.000+02:00Excellent post. Great diagrams, too. I showed th...Excellent post. Great diagrams, too. I showed them to a few friends and they laughed.<BR/><BR/>For related reading, Ebonmuse had written an insightful post about <A HREF="http://www.daylightatheism.org/2008/01/postmodern-apologists.html" REL="nofollow">Postmodern Apologists</A>. I think you should add the "You're intolerant" arrow from the Fundamentalist block as well, since they throw it at New Atheists as well, but even more-so at science and reason itself.bbkhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03656369848017438855noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8162162762021468524.post-2530054008465806542008-04-17T10:33:00.000+02:002008-04-17T10:33:00.000+02:00Thanks for your comment! Yeah, about "common sense...Thanks for your comment! Yeah, about "common sense", I just didn't want to go onto a discussion about human rights and what not, so I just wanted to sum it up as "common sense". I do think that game theory is pretty much like refined common sense though. But in any case, I think we agree on that matter. Common Sense alone would not be sufficient.<BR/><BR/><I>"Creationism can only find a footing in a culture which has already embraced a form of relativism."</I><BR/>That's very true, and it got me thinking. I mentioned that believers have a relativistic view about God's morality but when they explicitly demand to be exempt from rigorous scientific research, they are in effect demanding relativism. Who are they to complain about relativism? Postmodernists are merely trying to satisfy them and everyone else who demand their own personal truth. Everyone wants their truth, and get it, so there's an inflation of truths which renders all their truths useless.<BR/><BR/>So anyway, I think that while the "real relativists" must be targeted - how the religions indirectly promote relativism while complaining about it at the same time must be pointed out more often.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13743460535956343491noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8162162762021468524.post-90629985082558956102008-04-16T18:17:00.000+02:002008-04-16T18:17:00.000+02:00Great diagrams! I'd like to think that ethics are ...Great diagrams! I'd like to think that ethics are based on a little more than common sense, though. Like the structure of the human mind, the "human universals" and game theory.<BR/><BR/>The worst problem with relativism is that it allows any fact or theory to be questioned--no matter how solid the evidence. It debases the very idea of knowledge. In that sense, it's worse than creationism. Creationism can only find a footing in a culture which has already embraced a form of relativism. (They have to find a way to justify elevating feelings and beliefs over facts.) All these arguments that "science is a belief system" are based in the goal of advancing relativism. Also, such accommodationist positions as Stephen Jay Gould's NOMA are relativist.<BR/><BR/>You discussed a very important misuse of the term "relativism" by believers. You would be surprised at the number of angry emails I get accusing me of being a moral relativist since I reject scripture. This is an entirely different sense of the word than "intellectual relativism."<BR/><BR/>Fundamentalists consider intellectual relativists to be "useful idiots" but they despise moral relativists. It's hard to have any dialog at all when the terms have been so differently defined. This is of course an area that's ripe for deliberate equivocation. It's the intellectual relativists who inexplicably justify supporting practices they find personally abhorrent.<BR/><BR/>Regardless of the nuance, I think you've made a good point that there are three very distinct poles in this debate.BlackSunhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15591731325290405256noreply@blogger.com