A former 40 year Atheist analyzes Atheism, without resorting to theism, deism, or fantasy. *** If You Don't Value Truth, Then What DO You Value? *** If we say that the sane can be coaxed and persuaded to rationality, and we say that rationality presupposes logic, then what can we say of those who actively reject logic? *** Atheists have an obligation to give reasons in the form of logic and evidence for rejecting Theist theories.
Thursday, January 11, 2018
Pinker on Political Correctness and Withheld Truth
I don't pay much attention to what Steven Pinker has to say. He's been useful to the Left for some time, but that's because he's the sort of professor who can, with a straight face, declare that the 20th Century is evidence that we are growing more kind towards each other.
He's written and sold entire books where he establishes - to his own satisfaction, no doubt - that the mind can be explained solely by the workings of the brain, aided by the storytelling-power of evolutionary psychology.
That materialism cuts its own throat as a philosophy and as a working explanation of how the mind works - that evolutionary psychology is a string of just-so stories based on the assumption that *another* just-so story (evolution) is absolutely true... nah, I'll not even click on this one.
Pinker may have published something that is temporarily favorable to conservatism and commonsense. But he has a track record of professional self-delusion, one that he has a talent for spreading like an infection.
Thus his usefulness to the Left, and thus, my rejection.
I love Steven Pinker!
ReplyDeleteI don't pay much attention to what Steven Pinker has to say. He's been useful to the Left for some time, but that's because he's the sort of professor who can, with a straight face, declare that the 20th Century is evidence that we are growing more kind towards each other.
ReplyDeleteHe's written and sold entire books where he establishes - to his own satisfaction, no doubt - that the mind can be explained solely by the workings of the brain, aided by the storytelling-power of evolutionary psychology.
That materialism cuts its own throat as a philosophy and as a working explanation of how the mind works - that evolutionary psychology is a string of just-so stories based on the assumption that *another* just-so story (evolution) is absolutely true... nah, I'll not even click on this one.
Pinker may have published something that is temporarily favorable to conservatism and commonsense. But he has a track record of professional self-delusion, one that he has a talent for spreading like an infection.
Thus his usefulness to the Left, and thus, my rejection.