Plasma Pool

Icon

a set of sharp and cogent notes

drink deep

Sep 2, 2009 2

PZ Myers: Adolescent

Culture

Kevin Hilke

Terry Eagleton’s Reason, Faith and Revolution: Reflections on the God Debate sloppily but effectively takes down self-anointed atheist iconoclasts whose adherence to a reductionist view of contemporary religion is usually as dogmatic as the beliefs of those they impugn. PZ Myers swoops in, and in a botched attempt to undo Eagleton, demonstrates precisely what is wrong with the way “atheists” approach believers and belief. People believe complexly, and until Myers and others like him can face that and account for it in a way that both engages with it substantively and doesn’t resort to juvenile condescension, they’ll be as abjectly dogmatic as the simpleminded dupes they seem to think constitute the believing population. We have no room, and should have no intellectual tolerance, for such simplistic thinking about human behavior.

Jan 10, 2009 7

I Am a Militant Atheist

Culture

Elliott Callahan

Unlike other animals, who only know they are going to die when only death is manifestly imminent, we must find a way to cope with our mortality. This is of the highest priority to the perpetuity of our species, because if we couldn’t cope, we might well spend our entire (short) lives in a state of mortal fear. Human consciousness evolved quickly, as evidenced by the poor fit between crania and hips, but so did our coping mechanism. It arose from pre-existing instincts for superstition and it stuck. It began to manipulate sentience in order to perpetuate its own existence, and it came to hold dominion over the rationality it evolved to facilitate.

The Plasma Spring