Comments on: links for 2008-09-25 http://timelady.com/blog/2008/09/26/links-for-2008-09-25/ more nonsensical ramblings are needed online Wed, 07 Jan 2009 22:33:45 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6 By: karma http://timelady.com/blog/2008/09/26/links-for-2008-09-25/#comment-73707 karma Sat, 27 Sep 2008 12:32:59 +0000 http://timelady.com/blog/2008/09/26/links-for-2008-09-25/#comment-73707 The Jillette essay contains an early non sequitur: "You can't prove a negative" is incorrect. For example, one of the two statements "Mike Rann isn't male" and "Mike Rann isn't female" can be proven correct, given sufficient access to test the physical incarnation of the human being referred to here as "Mike Rann". The rest of the essay carries on from this shaky start to refer to a series of behaviors that are enabled by the atheistic stance, that apparently make the writer more fulfilled and less liable to waste time on ineffectual activities. In my opinion, the claimed outcomes are very hard to quantify, and especially hard to show that atheism alone enables these results, and the somewhat short essay is unconvincing in arguing its case. --karma The Jillette essay contains an early non sequitur: “You can’t prove a negative” is incorrect. For example, one of the two statements “Mike Rann isn’t male” and “Mike Rann isn’t female” can be proven correct, given sufficient access to test the physical incarnation of the human being referred to here as “Mike Rann”.

The rest of the essay carries on from this shaky start to refer to a series of behaviors that are enabled by the atheistic stance, that apparently make the writer more fulfilled and less liable to waste time on ineffectual activities. In my opinion, the claimed outcomes are very hard to quantify, and especially hard to show that atheism alone enables these results, and the somewhat short essay is unconvincing in arguing its case.

–karma

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