tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6215077578479252542.post2671899901400133493..comments2024-03-15T17:06:31.642-05:00Comments on The Piety That Lies Between: A Progressive Christian Perspective: Human Decency Across Ideological Divides: The Case of Penn JilletteEric Reitanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06135739290199272992noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6215077578479252542.post-7716959644319806732011-03-25T10:47:21.787-05:002011-03-25T10:47:21.787-05:00Speaking of stories, truth, and social utility, Re...Speaking of stories, truth, and social utility, Religion Dispatches has an excellent piece on the new <a href="http://www.religiondispatches.org/archive/culture/4396/frodo_and_mormon_share_stage_in_%E2%80%98south_park%E2%80%99_mormon_musical" rel="nofollow">Mormon show</a>.Burkhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11158223475895530397noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6215077578479252542.post-72802811062992411432011-03-24T19:39:26.686-05:002011-03-24T19:39:26.686-05:00I am intrigued by the concept of excommunication, ...I am intrigued by the concept of excommunication, actually. How can one pronounce the concept of god a mystery on one hand and then take it upon oneself to be its gatekeeper? At least I assume that Piper and others who excommunicate, like the Pope, regard the essence of their belief as deeply mysterious. So, the best on one can say is that they are policing a social club, (a temporal church), not saying anything really about whether god does or doesn't like the excommunicatee, will save her, etc. But that is clearly not how they would conceive of it themselves.<br /><br />This relates to claim of truth, since one has to know truth in order to know enough to reject falsity. The scientific community has labored long and hard to excommunicate creationism, but its own standards of truth/falsity are so high that, (typically for liberals), they don't bring the kind of self-righteous certainty that is more commonly associated with excommunication, and go through the lengthy rigamarole of persuading the public, proving their case to the Nth degree, straining to take their adversary's arguments seriously, etc. Do chess clubs excommunicate? Probably not- they don't claim to own existential truths.<br /><br />So excommunication has a lot to do with confidence on one's knowledge- confidence that is typically, and curiously, higher in religious social groups than in scientific groups, despite the actual level of knowledge being, in my humble opinion, rather lower. What leads to such confidence? It isn't a philosophical question, but a psychological one, of great import. I speculate that, true or not, the sharing of a totemic doctrine becomes more important than its truth-value.<br /><br />Does Dawkins excommunicate people, as the "pope" of atheism? I don't think so, perhaps because the organization is far looser than the regimented flocks common in religious groups, whom one could say delusion cements together. But also because its approach to truth is not dogmatic, rather more tentative ... god is only "highly unlikely", after all. The whole nature of its truth-finding is deeply different. Though there certainly are disagreements about whether atheists are allowed to be <a href="http://www.pointofinquiry.org/spirituality_friend_or_foe_adam_frank_and_tom_flynn/" rel="nofollow">spiritual</a>!Burkhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11158223475895530397noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6215077578479252542.post-14318183730789601312011-03-24T17:57:04.808-05:002011-03-24T17:57:04.808-05:00Anonymous: Thanks! I was following the spelling on...Anonymous: Thanks! I was following the spelling on the YouTube video. Correction made.Eric Reitanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06135739290199272992noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6215077578479252542.post-9569690366474115502011-03-24T16:06:52.253-05:002011-03-24T16:06:52.253-05:00His name is Penn Jillette
http://en.wikipedia.org...His name is Penn Jillette<br /><br />http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penn_JilletteAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com