Stanley Fish discovers evangelical atheists
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Stanley Fish, NYT Opinion: God Talk, Part 2[^]
According to recent surveys, somewhere between 79 and 92 percent of Americans believe in God. But if the responses to my column[^] on Terry Eagleton’s “Faith, Reason and Revolution” constitute a representative sample, 95 percent of Times readers don’t. What they do believe, apparently, is that religion is a fairy tale, hogwash, balderdash, nonsense and a device for rationalizing horrible deeds. Of course, there is more than name-calling to their antitheism; there are arguments, and the one most often made insists on a sharp distinction between religion and science, or, alternatively, between faith and reason. ... So to sum up, the epistemological critique of religion — it is an inferior way of knowing — is the flip side of a naïve and untenable positivism. And the critique of religion’s content — it’s cotton-candy fluff — is the product of incredible ignorance. ...
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Stanley Fish, NYT Opinion: God Talk, Part 2[^]
According to recent surveys, somewhere between 79 and 92 percent of Americans believe in God. But if the responses to my column[^] on Terry Eagleton’s “Faith, Reason and Revolution” constitute a representative sample, 95 percent of Times readers don’t. What they do believe, apparently, is that religion is a fairy tale, hogwash, balderdash, nonsense and a device for rationalizing horrible deeds. Of course, there is more than name-calling to their antitheism; there are arguments, and the one most often made insists on a sharp distinction between religion and science, or, alternatively, between faith and reason. ... So to sum up, the epistemological critique of religion — it is an inferior way of knowing — is the flip side of a naïve and untenable positivism. And the critique of religion’s content — it’s cotton-candy fluff — is the product of incredible ignorance. ...
Fish writes a lot of columns in a similar vein. They are all rubbish. Fish thinks that having a brick fall on your foot and drawing the conclusion that the falling brick was responsible for the pain and injury that immediately followed is an act of faith, no different from the faith that Jesus died for our sins and rose from the dead three days later. It is amazing the silliness that people can convince themselves of. There is indeed an element of "faith" involved in science --- a belief, for example, that sense data provides useful evidence. Those who lack such "faith" in ordinary physical realities are generally in mental hospitals --- or should be. However, people like Fish are not insane, merely insincere. Almost all the time, they accept as truths all the philosophical presuppositions of science, but think there are special sources of knowledge where issues of religion are involved. Just why that should be so is never explained and never can be. It is founded simply on wishful thinking.
John Carson
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Fish writes a lot of columns in a similar vein. They are all rubbish. Fish thinks that having a brick fall on your foot and drawing the conclusion that the falling brick was responsible for the pain and injury that immediately followed is an act of faith, no different from the faith that Jesus died for our sins and rose from the dead three days later. It is amazing the silliness that people can convince themselves of. There is indeed an element of "faith" involved in science --- a belief, for example, that sense data provides useful evidence. Those who lack such "faith" in ordinary physical realities are generally in mental hospitals --- or should be. However, people like Fish are not insane, merely insincere. Almost all the time, they accept as truths all the philosophical presuppositions of science, but think there are special sources of knowledge where issues of religion are involved. Just why that should be so is never explained and never can be. It is founded simply on wishful thinking.
John Carson
John Carson wrote:
Those who lack such "faith" in ordinary physical realities are generally in mental hospitals
or Mansfield, Ohio.
Jon Smith & Wesson: The original point and click interface Both democrats and republicans are playing for the same team and it's not us. - Chris Austin
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Stanley Fish, NYT Opinion: God Talk, Part 2[^]
According to recent surveys, somewhere between 79 and 92 percent of Americans believe in God. But if the responses to my column[^] on Terry Eagleton’s “Faith, Reason and Revolution” constitute a representative sample, 95 percent of Times readers don’t. What they do believe, apparently, is that religion is a fairy tale, hogwash, balderdash, nonsense and a device for rationalizing horrible deeds. Of course, there is more than name-calling to their antitheism; there are arguments, and the one most often made insists on a sharp distinction between religion and science, or, alternatively, between faith and reason. ... So to sum up, the epistemological critique of religion — it is an inferior way of knowing — is the flip side of a naïve and untenable positivism. And the critique of religion’s content — it’s cotton-candy fluff — is the product of incredible ignorance. ...
Typical Fish. "They didn't agree with me. They must all be liberal Nazi commie Muslim atheists." Never mind that the people who didn't agree with him represent a diverse range of views (including some evangelical Christians), and that the only thing they all share in common is the ability to smell Stanley's BS.
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John Carson wrote:
Those who lack such "faith" in ordinary physical realities are generally in mental hospitals
or Mansfield, Ohio.
Jon Smith & Wesson: The original point and click interface Both democrats and republicans are playing for the same team and it's not us. - Chris Austin
Is Ilion in Ohio ?
Christian Graus Driven to the arms of OSX by Vista. "I am new to programming world. I have been learning c# for about past four weeks. I am quite acquainted with the fundamentals of c#. Now I have to work on a project which converts given flat files to XML using the XML serialization method" - SK64 ( but the forums have stuff like this posted every day )
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Is Ilion in Ohio ?
Christian Graus Driven to the arms of OSX by Vista. "I am new to programming world. I have been learning c# for about past four weeks. I am quite acquainted with the fundamentals of c#. Now I have to work on a project which converts given flat files to XML using the XML serialization method" - SK64 ( but the forums have stuff like this posted every day )
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Typical Fish. "They didn't agree with me. They must all be liberal Nazi commie Muslim atheists." Never mind that the people who didn't agree with him represent a diverse range of views (including some evangelical Christians), and that the only thing they all share in common is the ability to smell Stanley's BS.
James L. Thomson wrote:
"They didn't agree with me. They must all be liberal Nazi commie Muslim atheists."
Sounds like Stan.
Jon Smith & Wesson: The original point and click interface Both democrats and republicans are playing for the same team and it's not us. - Chris Austin
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Typical Fish. "They didn't agree with me. They must all be liberal Nazi commie Muslim atheists." Never mind that the people who didn't agree with him represent a diverse range of views (including some evangelical Christians), and that the only thing they all share in common is the ability to smell Stanley's BS.
James L. Thomson wrote:
Typical Fish. "They didn't agree with me. They must all be liberal Nazi commie Muslim atheists."
Whether that is or is not Fish's typical mode of operation, I don't know. I'm vaguely aware of him as a leftist-liberal, and that's about it. However, regardless of what he may or may not typically do, I do know that is *not* what he is doing here. Perhaps the link took you to a different webpage than it takes me?