I was out for dinner with a friend of mine tonight and she accused me of being as dogmatic in my beliefs about the absence of supernatural phenomena as a fundamentalist religious nut is in their defense of scripture.

We were having a spirited and adult conversation (the nature of which might be an interesting series of posts come to think of it—so stay tuned!) and her comment wasn’t at all malicious.

But it was a gross misrepresentation—and a tired one at that, might I add—and I wasn’t having it. But just as much, I didn’t really want to go through how positively UNdogmatic I am—in stark contrast to the fundamentalist; I’ve simply had that conversation (or should I say “I’ve had to present that ‘defense’”) more times than I can recall. I pointed out the basics of the argument, but then just referred her to Richard Dawkins’ book The God Delusion.

If either of the following conditions apply to you, you need to read Chapter 8, sub-section: Fundamentalism and the Subversion of Science:

(a) you have ever been accused in the same manner as outlined above

or

(b) you think that someone who ardently refuses to believe in supernatural phenomena (and can make sound, rational, logical, well thought out, scientific arguments for why this is the case) is on the same keel as a fundamentalist.

While you’re at it, you might also like to take a look at the quotation of and discussion around Bertrand Russell’s celestial teapot passage (Chapter 2, sub-section: The Poverty of Agnosticism).

That should, in the case of (a)-people, be enough to immunize you against the inevitable in the future, or in the case of (b)-people, give you something to think about. For those falling into category (b), pay special attention to the story about the Golgi Apparatus.

To your success!

Leslie

P.S. Do go and at least read the reviews of the book on Amazon. I particularly like G.Merritt’s review (the most recent at the time of this post). The comment about the life-raft versus swimming is spot-on and, in fact, is something that came up in our conversation tonight and caused a bit of a problem.

This book really should be required reading for everyone. It’s school curriculum stuff. But, uh, like that’s ever gonna happen!

Say, my creepy Orwellian computer system (actually, just a simple WordPress plug-in and nothing to worry about. Honest!) is displaying this message automatically because it wants to help you get the latest updates to this somewhat irregular blog delivered to you direct, hot off the press via RSS! Huh? Via...WHAT??? Don't worry, it's just a fancy email thing without the spam. Easy. Painless. Safe. Click here to subscribe via RSS..

Thanks for visiting & I hope you find some good stuff here! Leslie