When it comes to defending the claims of
various religions and supernaturalism in general, there are many awful
arguments. But there’s nothing quite like a poor, religious person babbling a
string of incoherent words to support wacked out beliefs.
Today’s three videos of the day come
from the internet show The Atheist
Experience, and they feature callers who base their religious beliefs on drugs
trips that they’ve had, using these experiences to justify jumbled nonsense.
Read on for descriptions of these videos and links.
Thursday, July 30, 2015
Thursday, July 23, 2015
Video of the Day: Matt Dillahunty on Essentialism
Today’s Video of the Day is a podcast
starring Atheist Experience host Matt
Dillahunty. In this video, Matt talks about the essentialism that underlies the
thinking of most people (and that finds its expression in a lot of religious
arguments).
The guy talking to him is kind of annoying, but luckily he doesn’t have too much to say: the video mostly consists of Matt freely discoursing on this subject, with the interviewer just bringing up various topics for him to discuss. Some of the topics covered include the “Ship of Theseus” thought experiment, identity/labels, abortion, gay marriage, Hitler sweaters, and in what way numbers can be said to “exist.”
This is one of the best podcasts I’ve listened to in a really long time.
You can find the video here.
Readers may want to reflect on the ways that the argument from definition – a favorite of religious dunderheads – is the product of one kind of essentialism. As Matt mentions in the video, words don’t actually have (essential) meanings…they have usages that vary in different contexts and that develop over time. He tells the story of one debate he did in which the Christians in the audience were dumbfounded by this idea and mocked him for it…but it’s precisely this kind of essentialism that underlies so many faulty religious arguments, from assumptions like “Marriage is a union of a man and a woman” to “Materialists start from the assumption that the natural world is all there is.”
The guy talking to him is kind of annoying, but luckily he doesn’t have too much to say: the video mostly consists of Matt freely discoursing on this subject, with the interviewer just bringing up various topics for him to discuss. Some of the topics covered include the “Ship of Theseus” thought experiment, identity/labels, abortion, gay marriage, Hitler sweaters, and in what way numbers can be said to “exist.”
This is one of the best podcasts I’ve listened to in a really long time.
You can find the video here.
Readers may want to reflect on the ways that the argument from definition – a favorite of religious dunderheads – is the product of one kind of essentialism. As Matt mentions in the video, words don’t actually have (essential) meanings…they have usages that vary in different contexts and that develop over time. He tells the story of one debate he did in which the Christians in the audience were dumbfounded by this idea and mocked him for it…but it’s precisely this kind of essentialism that underlies so many faulty religious arguments, from assumptions like “Marriage is a union of a man and a woman” to “Materialists start from the assumption that the natural world is all there is.”
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