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The mission of the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science is to support scientific education, critical thinking and evidence-based understanding of the natural world in the quest to overcome religious fundamentalism, superstition, intolerance and suffering.
The Magic of Reality
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Sean Faircloth:
Attack of the Theocrats!
It depends on the theist in question.
Fundamentalists believe: (A) the claims their religions make were intended literally, and (B) that they are truthful.
More liberal religious people believe: (A) the claims their religions make were intended metaphorically, and (B) that they are truthful.
Trying to argue with logic, believe it or not, actually works better against fundamentalists because you don't have the additional problem of trying to convince them that how well their religious claims match up with reality is even relevant in the first place. They already believe it's relevant, and already are thinking, "I believe this because it's accurate" rather than "I believe this because [insert post-modernist wishy-washy bullshit here]."
Basically, with a fundamentalist, you can concentrate on logically arguing about (B) without their stance on (A) getting in the way of even being allowed to touch the subject of whether it's logical.
Permalink Sat, 10 Dec 2011 15:49:49 UTC | #897536