Carter's nihlism
Achilles achillesz@usa.net
Thu, 11 Feb 1999 09:08:37 -0500 (00918763717, 14071187450524@unifour.com)
On 11 Feb 99, at 8:30, Joseph Crea wrote:
> Hello, Jason!
>
> At 10:52 PM 2/10/99 -0500, Jason Carter wrote:
> --snip--
>
> >No, I'm mainly referring to atheists. Philosophies and beliefs which are
> >immoral (ie. cultic satanism) or degrade meaning in life (atheism) should
> >not be spread through evangelism. Those who have a positive philosophical
> >system, or moral system (even if untrue), I have no bones with.
>
>
> CREA
> And how do you propose to deal with those ATHEISTIC systems which
> possess a positive philosophical system or moral system, like Jainism and
> Theravada Buddhism? -- and don't go invoking some variation on the "no true
> Scotsman" fallacy, if you please.
Achilles
I will go out on a limb here and try my hand at being Poohbahs psychic friend.
I will predict that Carter will simply stick his head in the sand on this. If
he does try to deal with it at all he will indeed go back to the true Scotsman
fallacy.
Carter's problem is very common among Evangelicals I have known - he has a very
clear, but innaccurate, belief about other beliefs which he has never
investigated with an open mind. Also in common with other Evangelicals (indeed
this seems to be a distinctive characteristic) is the conflation of the
supernatural, the sacred, and the meaningful. I predict he will never be able
to grasp that these are different things, and one can exist without the others.
I would love to see this prediction proven wrong, of course, but I won't be
holding my breath.
/Achilles achillesz@usa.net
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Random thought for the moment:
You've outdone yourself, as usual.
-- S. Gorn's Compendium of Rarely Used Cliches