tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4764506766343254616.post3355289105588351493..comments2024-03-26T14:20:38.103-04:00Comments on The Thought Criminal: Listening With New Ears For Atheists Reciting Magical SpellsUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4764506766343254616.post-164594652783311542014-03-25T20:43:42.813-04:002014-03-25T20:43:42.813-04:00Once I realized that whenever they get stuck at a ...Once I realized that whenever they get stuck at a gap in knowledge, they just say "natural selection" as if that made it disappear. It's the Pops-a-Dent of materialist discourse. Only those dents are more like chasms. <br /><br />And there are several other magic charms I've noticed that are used the same way. "Probability" or "random" are two of them. <br /><br />I think it's something like "founding fathers" in right-wing discourse. The Thought Criminalhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01381376556757084468noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4764506766343254616.post-45971610954990017252014-03-25T20:04:52.539-04:002014-03-25T20:04:52.539-04:00Don't you know "evolution" explains ...Don't you know "evolution" explains everything, even when it doesn't?<br /><br />And of course the problem is not the theory of evolution per se, it's the buckshot use of it to cover up any bit of inconvenience that's laying around. I think that's my pet peeve: people who know nothing about other topics (such as the complexity of human consciousness) and simply reduce it to a reductio of "evolution did that" or, "it's all just neuro-chemical electrical discharges" or some such absurdity.<br /><br />In the right context it could be mocked as "Male Answer Syndrome," the male instinct to answer a question on any topic even if you don't know a single thing about the topic. Maybe it should be treated that way anyway, especially where the correct answer is: "Hell if I know."Rmjhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06811456254443706479noreply@blogger.com