Dr. Oliver invited me to post a copy of my final paper here on the blog so all of you could read it, so that's precisely what I'm doing. Here's the link
https://docs.google.com/document/pub?id=1Hj1ATM3GT-nwJMUwstGWH0vWH-DATRXcTvq1ZMqjF7A
Lastly, I would simply like to say how much I genuinely enjoyed our class! I will miss our discussions and the grand presentations that were made, as well as having the opportunity to get to know each of you. I hope you each have excellent summers!
Jonathan,
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, let me say that I enjoyed having you in class. I thought that you acquitted yourself quite well in the face of outspoken opposition and sometimes combative dialogue. So, good for you in that sense. But...
Did you read any of the assigned readings this semester? Did you actually listen to anything that was said during class? I find it almost unbelievable that you could have done either and still managed to write the paper that you wrote.
Seriously, I became hugely depressed after reading just the first two paragraphs. I did manage to make it thru the rest, but such a failure of critical thinking, logic, burden of proof, wishful thinking, god-of-the-gaps, and embarrassing strawman arguments. I honestly thought for a moment that you were setting up some kind of joke, caricaturing the uninformed beliefs of some Christians. The paper really is a mishmash of all the most common and easily addressed Christian apologetics.
I started to write out a response, going thru some of your paper point by point, but what's the use? You just took a college level course that addressed each and every issue that you brought up. I am just very surprised, I guess. Maybe some of it will sink in, someday.
:-(
It's true, we've read and discussed dozens of cogent rebuttals of all of Jonathan's complaints. Most of us have concluded that it's theism, not atheism, that must bear the brunt of his objections ("problematic, improbable, unreliable, unreasonabloe, unscientific, fallacious, unsatisfying").
ReplyDeleteAnd yet, Jonathan's right that we can't resolutely and finally disprove the god hypothesis. (Nor the teacup, spaghetti monster, Santa, et al). I think our time is better spent building an alternative to religious belief, instead of trying to destroy it. As Darwin said, in our universe the "vigorous, healthy, and happy survive and multiply." So here's to the vigorous, healthy, happy advocacy of a world without gods, and all the reasons why. But if Jonathan's healthier and happier with his god (with his god delusion, some of us can't help adding), so be it... until the subliminally-implanted force of our arguments finally get to him, someday. You'll let us know when you've seen our light, right Jonathan? I promise to let you know when I've seen yours. (It'll be a big news day, hell will have frozen etc.)
May peace be upon us all.