A pretty Christmas thought
Theo Hobson is strange. He starts with a guess about what an atheist might say, then reviews the saying as if it actually existed.
The atheist might respond that they do all these things because they believe the story to be literally true, and want to create propaganda for it. But this is his interpretation, and on close inspection it’s rather odd, and it’s pretentious in the sense of claiming to know more than it does. In reality he does not know exactly why people do these things, or what sort of belief in the story they have. He does not know the motivation of my aunt who sends me a card with a nativity scene on it, or my friend who attends a carol service.
That’s really quite funny, and a sign of a desperately woolly mind – to project a guess, and then in the very next sentence treat his own guess as if it were a well-attested fact. That ‘this’ in ‘But this is his interpretation’ is hilarious – what ‘this’? Where? What are you pointing at, Theo? I don’t see anything. You made it up, don’t you remember? You made up what the atheist might say, and you made up the atheist too – but you forgot your own process so quickly that now you think you even know what gender the atheist is. Tell us, what’s he wearing? Where did he go to school? Does he like quiche? And then Theo races on to fume about the atheist who doesn’t know the motivation of his aunt or his friend. That bastard! That pretentious bastard, with his interpretation! Who does he think he is?
At Christmas religious culture is rich and complex, full of depth and nuance, and the atheist’s little yapping dogmas about what religion is “really” about are just laughable.
[whispers] Theo…Theo…there are no little yapping dogmas – because there is no ‘the atheist’ – you made him up – remember? Scroll up – where it says ‘might’ – that’s you making a guess. Your pretentious dog-like atheist doesn’t exist, Theo, you dreamed him. You really need to learn to distinguish between your own fantasies and the real world.
Before I say Merry Christmas to my readers, I have a modest proposal. Let there be a public Boxing Day burning of all the unwanted copies of the God Delusion that are received at Christmas. Merry Christmas to my readers!
[whispers] Theo…Theo…it’s called persecution mania. I’d take care of that if I were you.
I’ve got a speculation about what’s in religious people’s minds for you — at least people like this fellow. It’s this: they are so deep into their own dogmatic world view, which includes not only the primary dogmas of their religion, but also dogmas about what is in the minds of atheists, agnostics, “heretics,” believers of “false religions,” and what have you, that they just can’t conceive of any of these dogmas being wrong. And they don’t care that they’re wrong. Their own beliefs make a nice, warm, mental cocoon that they just don’t want to leave. So why not just leave them at peace?
Of course, this speculation may be wrong. And of course many religious people don’t have such closed minds, fortunately. They can actually be conversed with.
Actually, just for a change, it is Ophelia wh has the typo, not me!
That should be a PETTY christmas thought …..
I sent as nasty a reply as I thought I could get away with to Comment_is_free ….
But, hoe very enlightened and christian to suggest book-burning!
Hobson is celarly off his head.
I would leave them in peace, if they would keep it to themselves. But they don’t; they burble away in major newspapers and other public sites.
Or perhaps I mean I would leave them in peace if I didn’t have this compulsion.
And that is his idea of a “modest proposal.” And it’s in reaction to what? To atheists demanding that the Bible be burned? No, to atheists arguing that devotion to the Bible is misplaced. Right, and we’re the arrogant ones, aren’t we?
Nearly forgot…
Ooops…
Theo Hobson would be an ideal poster boy for a scary “Your brain on religion” campaign.
Using the ‘one black swan’ approach I would like to call Theo Hobson’s attention to the fact that I am an atheist who listens to the ‘Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols’ every year and to Bach cantatas on the appropriate Sunday.
Therefore what he says is nonsense Q.E.D.
Ah, the old pseudoscholarly “the” …indispensable for assembly of strawmen. Reminds me of a Playboy interview with a KKK leader who kept going on abt. “the nigra”. I wanted to grab him and yell what @#$%&* “nigra” already, point said creature out to me or use the plural like a normal person. BUt I guess I shouldn’t expect the KKK to make sense.
And it seems to me that one should at least make an effort to figure out how literally one believes the things one believes. Especially the ones that were handed down from someone who invokes ancient myths rather than modern science. I know you can’t spend all your time at it, and I am still not sure how literal some of mine are, but I give it a bit of thought once in a while.
[toddles off to look up “louche”]
Calling for the burning of books always tend to make me a little uncomfortable – regardless of whether it is done by Hume or Hobson. It betrays an unhealthy attitude to argument (at least in Hobson’s case). Though I fully grant OB and our atheist commenters their fun with Theo, I wish that the atheist view had some more capable critics at CommentIsFree.
“I wish that the atheist view had some more capable critics…”
How about one so good that we’d be convinced our atheism is an error? I think one would probably suffice, if he really had a strong enough case to make.
Heh heh. Nice Einstein reference there. But I don’t think metaphysical issues such as theism vs. atheism can ever be solved to some kind of intersubjective consensus.