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comment by briandmyers
briandmyers  ·  4100 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Brian Leiter, “Why Tolerate Religion?”

You are putting words in my mouth, but it is true that I disdain faith. Faith and reason are not, in my mind, comparable things, at all. Finding one in the other is a nonsensical idea to me.





StephenBuckley  ·  4100 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Great. The next time you scoff at a young earth creationist or someone against stem cell research, realize that you are the exact same thing but on the opposite side.

briandmyers  ·  4100 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Not at all.

I don't have faith in Feynman, as much as you may wish it so. Faith means I believe it with no justification (or because god says so).

I have trust in Feynman, which is based on the fact that I have read a couple of his books and seen some of his lectures, and I know of his reputation. On the evidence of those things, I trust that he is not a charlatan. I may be wrong, but my belief is not one of faith.

StephenBuckley  ·  4100 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Right, and people don't have faith in God. They've read his book, seen a few of the things he's done, and his reputation precedes him.

briandmyers  ·  4100 days ago  ·  link  ·  

God hasn't written a book. No one has seen anything he's done. He does have a rep, though. So does Santa.

briandmyers  ·  4100 days ago  ·  link  ·  

And if you can demonstrate something that god has done, I'll bet you could collect a million dollars from the Randi Foundation.

StephenBuckley  ·  4100 days ago  ·  link  ·  

    Why can’t I submit a religious or spiritual claim?

    Because they are, for the most part, untestable.

trinitymike  ·  4031 days ago  ·  link  ·  

untestable claims are pretty much useless in terms of determining their truth. That's fine if you are claiming something as a subjective opinion or truth i.e. " I don't feel well." or " Lady Gaga sucks"...However, if you're making an assertion about something being a fact, if we can't test the truth of your claim, then, sorry, we feel no need to believe you.