The 20+ year saga of Woody Allen continues. He has now been defended by Barbara Walters, who had no part in the original molestation case. And his failed court case has been revisited, with a copy of the 33 page judgment against Allen which contains a history of the entire affair, and scorching judgments of Allen by the judge. And Dylan Farrow re-asserts herself.
For insight, read the entire 33 page judgment. I didn't intend to read it all, but I actually couldn't stop.
On another note, Woody Allen is listed as #35 on the list of "50 Top Atheists Today".
10 comments:
That list of the top 50 atheists is really something. Quite a lot of Jewish atheists, eh?
Notice the blatant double-standard applied by Philip Pullman, #36 on the list, to C.S. Lewis's work as opposed to his own.
Yeah, it is interesting how un-self-aware these people are. For example, Peter Singer pursues an eliminationist philosophy which ultimately could be used to eliminate himself using the same rationale: human value is based on the value of the human's contribution. Singer's contribution is merely to kill certain human categories (post natal) and to have sex with animals. This unconscious arrogance nets him the number one on the list.
Here's another taken at random:
Ophelia Benson says,
"“religion remains the last great prop and stay of arbitrary injustices and the coercion which backs them up.”
No, Ophelia, it is still Atheism as it is used in China and Russia. The anti-Christian religion, Islam, does take a distant second place though.
Stan two questions:
1.) Why do Atheists demand burden of proof from religion? The question can easily be revered to them.
2.)Since you brought up Singer.I now believe Atheists seem to have discomfort with the idea of free will. I remember reading about the phantom "Gay gene" a while back...do they think genetics overrides free will and decision making? Do they not know the human conscious is a mystery?
Stan, the atheism that ran rampant through Russia seems to be taking a backseat. We'll just have to wait and see how things develop and hope for the best.
Pete Singer and the rest really do need prayers. Jesus did say that there would come scoffers, but He desires to save all souls. His mercy is available to one and all.
One of Satan's lies which many atheists fall for is that God is a tyrant who enjoys watching us suffer. If that were truly the case, Jesus never would have stripped Himself of divinty, suffered and died for our sins. We would have no redemption, no freedom, no joy, no love ...no nothing. He could've simply erased the entire universe and made us REALLY suffer. Yet He didn't. Why? Because of His unfathomable love and mercy.
Now, I don't know how God thinks but it seems to me that if you create something, whether it be a piece of art, literature, music, or something else you enjoy, wouldn't that provide satisfaction? Why wouldn't God enjoy His own creation?
That the universe and all the laws which govern it could miraculously cause itself into being and that our existence is a cosmic accident caused by some mysterious random event is a logical absurdity. I submit that harboring such an ignorance view constitutes self-imposed blindness.
Blacksmith,
Welcome, and I will try to answer your questions.
First, Atheists are also Materialists, meaning that there is no possible existence except for material existence. Their demand for evidence always devolves to a demand for purely material evidence. Further, it devolves to a demand of evidence which is experiential rather than historical.
This demand is partly due to their closed system of thinking, but it is in part driven by pure cynicism, in the following sense: they know that there can never be an experiential (empirical) proof for a non-material entity. Thus they can laugh at theists who cannot provide empirical evidence upon the Atheist's demand. (Ridicule is a large part of the Atheist self-defense mechanism).
As for deductive reasoning to the probable existence of a creating entity for the universe, Atheists always refuse to provide either disciplined deductive refutations, or disciplined counter arguments other than Radical Skepticism.
Finally, Atheists refuse to provide any sort of evidence or reasoning to support their own rejection of theist propositions, because they cannot. They cover up this rational failure with (a) the excuse that they "have no god theory" or some form of that deception; or (b) the juvenile claim that "theists have not proven their point", without saying why they have not; or (c) they merely remain unconvinced without revealing what rational evidence would convince them, other than god appearing to them upon demand and fulfilling their every prayer demand like a candy machine.
(more below)
(continued from above)
Second, both consciousness and free will are serious threats to Atheism from the philosophical side. As rank Philosophical Materialists, Atheists must accept the cause and effect (deterministic) demand that science necessarily places on physical existence. This means that humans, as agents, fall outside of the deterministic cause and effect realm of purely physical existence because they cannot exist as we experience them to exist if physical existence is purely deterministic. So one of the major subjects amongst philosophers (all Atheist – nonAtheists are “theologians”, not “philosophers”) is the ever ongoing attempt to deny that agency exists, and to deny that consciousness exists (really).
The arguments go like this: Humans do not have the ability to change their genetics, their heritage, their environment, or their abilities; thus they do not have “free will” to change them. They do have a certain minor amount of “choice”, but that is not free will (Dennett). Or, according to Harris, humans only think that they have made choices, but they have not. They actually perform exactly as prior causation dictates that they act.
This spills over into the concept of consciousness: human consciousness is driven by its subconscious, where all decisions are made, and then transmitted to the conscious. The conscious mind is deceived into thinking that the decisions were made in the conscious mind, when in actuality the unconscious mind made the decisions, not the conscious mind. This dovetails with the idea of determinism, because the unconscious mind would be deterministically driven, while the conscious mind is deceived on two levels: that it made decisions; and that the decisions were non-deterministic (i.e., those of an agent, not of an automaton).
So Atheism requires that humans are autonomically driven, even in actions, and that humans are deceived in thinking that they think, when in actuality the subconscious mind does it all.
Atheism and Atheist philosophers write off the notion that this affects their own thoughts and actions, and that demonstrates the non-coherence of the Atheist philosophy.
Even Darwin acknowledged that if minds are merely random derivatives of evolutionary mutations and are merely causal firings of previously located electrons in the neurons of the brain, that gives cause to doubt the validity of his worldview (Darwin’s Horrid Doubt). To which Atheist philosophers reply that Darwin didn’t understand evolution like we moderns do.
Watch for this sign of intellectual failure in Atheists: they seek premises to fulfill the pre-selected answer which they have chosen emotionally, not rationally. This is rationalization; it is anti-rational.
@Stan:
You wrote:
"First, Atheists are also Materialists, meaning that there is no possible existence except for material existence. Their demand for evidence always devolves to a demand for purely material evidence. Further, it devolves to a demand of evidence which is experiential rather than historical."
To this I would like to add the following:
"It devolves still more to a demand for experiential evidence which is judged 'reasonable' in the eyes of the Atheist - meaning that, in the end, the demand is for evidence which agrees with what the Atheist wants to hear. Otherwise, it is not considered 'evidence' at all.
Steven,
Yes, that is right.
Stan thank you! I appreciate it!
I enjoy your site!
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