[Dragaera] agnosticism (no flame) (was, long ago: (no spoilers) The 17 [Great Weapons])

[Steve Rapaport]

On 22/05/07, Philip Hart <philiph at slac.stanford.edu> wrote:
>
>
>
> On Mon, 21 May 2007, Mark A. Mandel wrote:
>
> > I'm a consistent agnostic: I don't know, and I don't think anyone else
> > does either.
>
>
>
> This reasonable position is also known as giving up - it obliges you to
> not disbelieve in an afterlife ruled by the malevolent Barney, in the
> eternal conflict between Mr. Mxyztplk and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer,
> and in Devera's active participation on this list.



Right.   But  even disbelieving in such things is an act of faith and
therefore, by Gorelick's argument, not rational.   I can't see how
disbelieving in the malevolent Barney afterlife or Devera's participation
makes me a better person than those who hypothetically might believe in
them.

So I think I'm with Mark on this one.  Belief is irrelevant unless it makes
you do things like build cathedrals.  Then it's just a cool meme virus handy
for using humans to make things.



-- 
\Steve