dr_funkenstein Posted October 19, 2007 Posted October 19, 2007 http://www.youtube.com/comment_servlet?all...p;v=bOeGwGW5P8w Check the video and the comments at the above link. I'm jaycee69 on youtube (as well as KingFarookBand which you'll see as well). In a nutshell, this xian claims that he is rational, logical, intelligent and he feels this is consistent with his god-belief. He says that somehow lacking a belief in god "transforms you" into a more rational, intelligent person. I challenged him on this in the comments for the video. I told him that it's not the lack of a belief that causes one to be more rational, but instead it's the use of rationality that will lead one to lacking god-belief. I also said that theists are not inherently irrational or unintelligent, it's just that they choose to suspend their reason when it comes to the question of god-belief. What follows is some of the most fancy dancing I've seen for awhile. I swear, this guy must have taken ballet lessons or something because he dances up a storm. I ended up chatting on stickam with this guy, in a chatroom full of his supporters, where I was only typing and he had the camera/microphone (significant disadvantage). What frustrated me the most about all of this is his insistence that because he has apparently studied philosophy and epistemology that he therefore understands all the nuances and subtleties about what constitutes evidence and proof, and since I have not studied these things in as much detail that therefore I'm not on an even footing with him. It is for this reason that he refuses to tell me what his evidence for believing in god consists of. When really pressed, the evidence he gave was: The bible Himself The bald-faced arrogance! The elitism! He even had the audacity in the stickam room to label my understanding of philosophy as "crap". I know it shouldn't make me mad but it really really does!
SWIM Posted October 19, 2007 Posted October 19, 2007 I had a really *tough* time watching that. When the youtuber starts off with a big long brag about how smart they are, I usually hit the stop button. I am glad folks like him do that at the beginning of the vid, saves me the time to watch it. "I am a scholar" he says, while showing a total air of superiority. It just plain is not worth the bandwidth to watch from that point on. If the merits of one's self are not apparent by one's content, they have no business making a video at all, unless it is intended to be comedy.
Jedah Posted October 19, 2007 Posted October 19, 2007 This guy seems like the type who eventually realizes that xianity is fubar, but continues up his stance because he doesn't want to openly deconvert since it would hurt his ego to admit that its all BS.
HadouKen24 Posted October 20, 2007 Posted October 20, 2007 Yeesh. While I think he's correct about the role philosophy should play in a rational worldview, he's crap at it. I'm watching the video he linked to in which he said that he would talk about evidence. Rather incoherent. He goes about making his point in an incredibly obfuscated way, and ends up constructing a straw man argument somewhere along the way. He really is giving you the runaround, but I don't think he realizes it. Simply replace "evidence" with what it really means--"rational justification"-- and it becomes obvious that he's just arguing semantics. While what constitutes rational justification is, indeed, a very important philosophical question, all rational people more or less agree on the basics--otherwise, it would be hard to say we have reason at all. What aspects of one's disagreement with his epistemology are important depend on what kind of justification he gives. It wastes time and makes the discussion over-complicated to argue as he does.
Grandpa Harley Posted October 20, 2007 Posted October 20, 2007 Has a willy like a Shetland Pony too, I bet...
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