tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20796873.post392993869128436068..comments2016-05-06T06:34:04.108+01:00Comments on Wouldn't It Be Scarier?: The New Atheism - The Next StepAndyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15432543456476489561noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20796873.post-43626268570071138082009-04-15T00:10:00.000+01:002009-04-15T00:10:00.000+01:00Um... I was suggesting the opposite, actually, but...Um... I was suggesting the opposite, actually, but never mind. I don't think atheism needs to find more "humility", and I'd agree with Baggini that the woolly centre is as worth taking on as the extremist fringe.<br /><br />As for the limits of rational comprehension... fine, but nobody has ever explained to me what other sort of comprehension I am supposed to have. This is what I have always come back to in discussions with intelligent religious types: make me a rational case for irrationality, and I'm yours, but in the meantime, I have my own account of where my irrational impulses and associations come from, and it isn't one that suggests to me that I should try to set them up as some untouchable, special area of my head. Rather, I should treat them with skepticism and endeavour to subject them to rational questioning whenever I notice them.Andyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15432543456476489561noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20796873.post-6050875351507396822009-04-14T17:33:00.000+01:002009-04-14T17:33:00.000+01:00I'd definitely agree with you on this. It is frust...I'd definitely agree with you on this. It is frustrating to me that atheism is self-proclaiming the right to the intellectual high ground when their essential argument is they are nothing more than a complex illusion arising from physical interactions.<br /><br />It's ironic that some of the most adamant critics of blind dogma believe that being alive is an illusion simply because there's a convincing argument.<br /><br />Atheism spends a lot of time bashing the diverse exoteric traditions and rarely focuses on the fact that the long-standing exoteric traditions (Islam, Christianity, Judaism) have associated esoteric traditions (Sufism, Gnosticism, Kabbalah) which, like Buddhism, Taoism and much of Hinduism, emphasize the limitations of rational comprehension.<br /><br />I appreciate atheism as a framework for appreciating the world, but I think the average atheist needs to remember the difference, as they put it in Zen, between the reflection and the moon.<br /><br />Absolute knowledge isn't an options, so I think you kit the nail on the head suggesting that a bit of humility is in order.Willhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03154693625673873180noreply@blogger.com