tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18646885.post113849754123879376..comments2023-10-25T03:11:45.107-07:00Comments on The force that through...: Intelligent design opponents gather in KansasPaul D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/00535027161567978343noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18646885.post-1143332378738399362006-03-25T16:19:00.000-08:002006-03-25T16:19:00.000-08:00Fred,You raise a good point, but Ted does not seem...Fred,<BR/><BR/>You raise a good point, but Ted does not seem to be attacking people here but rather a certain inflexibility of thinking. I happen to be a Christian myself but I am also a person very much of the enlightenment so I sympathesize with your desire for rational discourse. <BR/><BR/>Dogma stops rational discourse and quite frankly leads to delusional thinking. That is exactly what has happened to some of the Kansas Board of Education and when I see delusional thinking I have no qualms about calling it as I see it.<BR/><BR/>But, yes attack the arguements and the thinking, not the person.<BR/><BR/>PaulPaul D.https://www.blogger.com/profile/00535027161567978343noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18646885.post-1143310960750774622006-03-25T10:22:00.000-08:002006-03-25T10:22:00.000-08:00"it seems that the age of reason is fasting waning..."it seems that the age of reason is fasting waning in the wake of puritanical dogma"<BR/><BR/>But this is not an argument. All ted g. has stated is an opinion that is HIS dogma. Thus doing exactly what he complains they are doing. As a freethinking skeptic with xian family members whom I care about, I am dismayed by the amount of vitreol and bias that is thrown against them. The danger to us though is that some of them have solid arguments especially against things like Roe v. Wade and Stem Cell research that will come back and bite us unless we present a valid argument. In otherwords stop acting like the battle has already been one by making dismissive statements. For example www.neilmammen.com/Abortion_Response_Combined_Handout.pdf presents a formidable argument that I am currently battling. It's effectively leaving me with only one response: We should be able to kill whomever we want. Which is not a very palatable one to me.<BR/><BR/>It's far too easy to use ad hominems and insult people and use the populations' biases against them, but if we do not engage the arguments themselves we will lose this war over time. It's the ideas that have to win, not the people. To win we have to argue step by step and dismantle their arguments. Not make dismissive statements like the above.<BR/><BR/>And remember we all have family members whom we love who are on the otherside.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com