Subscribe to and Contact HDC
|
By Neece, on January 22, 2010, at 9:41 pm
 I am reading several books right now (I have them all listed in the left sidebar). One is called The God Virus and I just started it the other day. On page 18, Darrel W. Ray describes an experiment. I think I’ve heard of it before, but I thought I’d share it with you because it shows how religion attacks the critical thinking skills of the mind. As Mr. Ray says, it leaves the skill intact for other religions but disables critical thinking about one’s own religion. It really is like a virus of the mind.
Here’s the experiment as explained in the book:
You have a serious conversation with a deeply christian friend. Your friend is intelligent, well educated and knowledgeable. You agree to record the session. The topic is islam. During the session, you discuss that mohammed was a self-appointed prophet and that he claimed [...]
By Neece, on January 8, 2010, at 8:57 am
 The logical fallacy known as The Slippery Slope wrongly assumes that one thing must lead to another, and another and before you know it you get to something awful. Therefore you can’t do the first thing. This is a very common fallacy. It’s also known as the Fallacy of the Beard.
In an argument, it is the situation where acceptance of a minor detail of the opposing position will greatly weaken your position.
This is Part 10 in a series about Logical Fallacies. We are going through one fallacy at a time. There are many types of fallacious arguments. I’m going to try to explain them with examples then find ways to help you refute those arguments when they occur. Please comment or email if there’s a particular fallacy you want me to tackle, or if you have success with refuting an argument using a good [...]
By Neece, on October 26, 2009, at 7:51 am
 Moving the Goalpost, or Raising the Bar, is a common informal logical fallacy in which the arguer, when presented with evidence against one of his claims, redefines his claim without acknowledging the validity of the evidence and counterargument. In other words, the arguer doesn’t like what he hears so he simply changes what would satisfy the argument. In doing so, it can make any claim at all vacuously true and invulnerable to reasoned disproof.
This is Part 9 in a series about Logical Fallacies. We are going through one fallacy at a time. There are many types of fallacious arguments. I’m going to try to explain them with examples then find ways to help you refute those arguments when they occur. Please comment or email if there’s a particular fallacy you want me to tackle, or if you have success with refuting an argument using a [...]
By Neece, on October 20, 2009, at 4:42 pm
Hello everyone! I hope you’re having a great day!
This is one of those catch-all posts where I have several items to share with you.
Some atheist news and education which is great, and some church news that is horrible. So the score for the day is Atheists 2, churches -100.
 First, the United Coalition of Reason is getting ready to post ads on the subway in New York. These are different than the ones they posted for us here in Morgantown, WV.
The bus ads say: A million New Yorkers are good without God. Are you? That’s awesome! The NYTimes wrote a long article about it, and our Morgantown billboard even gets a mention!
Next, I saw a video on The Friendly Atheist of Neil deGrasse Tyson explaining the Argument from Ignorance. [...]
By Neece, on August 27, 2009, at 7:00 am
 Cherry-Picking is when you count the hits and ignore the misses. It is used when only certain quotes, data, studies or research are used to support an argument while ignoring other valid and credible quotes, data, studies and research.
Cherry-picking is rampant in the religious population. For example, in my Conversations with christians, I have run across religious people using this logical fallacy in 15 out of 19 entries.
This is Part 8 in a series about Logical Fallacies, Misconceptions, False Beliefs. We are going through one fallacy at a time. There are many types of fallacious arguments. I’m going to try to explain them with examples then find ways to help you refute those arguments when they occur. Please comment or email if there’s a particular fallacy you want me to tackle, or if you have success with refuting an argument using a good [...]
By Neece, on August 20, 2009, at 7:46 pm
As you may have noticed, there’s a new conversation element in the sidebar. I added it so people can leave general comments for the whole site easily. You can be anonymous or sign in with all different kinds of accounts, not just google. It seemed like a friendly way to promote communication. Someone posted a video in there the other day with a request for help on how to refute “an arrogant christian”.
Here is the video. I’ll warn you, it’s almost 27 minutes long and incredibly irritating to watch.
Honestly, it’s so ridiculous, I almost decided to do nothing about it. I suggested to the unknown person to get a copy of Atheist Universe by David Mills because basically that whole book refutes this video in very clear and easy to follow detail, without oversimplifying. It’s quite thorough and I highly recommend it.
But then [...]
By Neece, on August 4, 2009, at 4:58 am
 While I am a 7th degree black belt atheist, I do have a heart of gold, as I’m sure you know. (just kidding! I’m trying to lighten the mood! Ok, you’re right, I’m not kidding, I really do have a heart of gold)
Where was I? Oh, right. When someone comes to me and asks me to have a conversation with them about religion and atheism, I feel it’s my responsibility as an atheist to show that a discourse is possible. I want to show religious people that I am indeed a living, breathing ethical atheist. I am rather nice to people, especially if they aren’t visiting my home for more than one night. (Then all bets are off) I try to show people how to use reason, logic and facts to find out things for themselves.
Sure, sometimes I can get a bit testy when a christian insults [...]
|
Neece & Butch’s Zazzle Designs – Sir Lee Tees
Neece & Jenny’s Zazzle Designs
|
I am reading several books right now (I have them all listed in the left sidebar). One is called The God Virus and I just started it the other day. On page 18, Darrel W. Ray describes an experiment. I think I’ve heard of it before, but I thought I’d share it with you because it shows how religion attacks the critical thinking skills of the mind. As Mr. Ray says, it leaves the skill intact for other religions but disables critical thinking about one’s own religion. It really is like a virus of the mind.
Recent Comments