#debate

One reader of an early draft of this chapter complained at this point, saying that by treating the hypothesis of God as just one more scientific hypothesis, to be evaluated by the standards of science in particular and rational thought in general, Dawkins and I are ignoring the very widespread claim by believers in God that their faith is quite beyond reason, not a matter to which such mundane methods of testing applies. It is not just unsympathetic, he claimed, but strictly unwarranted for me simply to assume that the scientific method continues to apply with full force in this domain of truth. Very well, let's consider the objection. I doubt that the defender of religion will find it attractive, once we explore it carefully. The philosopher Ronaldo de Souza once memorably described philosophical theology as "intellectual tennis without a net," and I readily allow that I have indeed been assuming without comment or question up to now that the net of rational judgement was up. But we can lower it if you really want to. It's your serve. Whatever you serve, suppose I return service rudely as follows: "What you say implies that God is a ham sandwich wrapped in tin foil. That's not much of a God to worship!". If you then volley back, demanding to know how I can logically justify my claim that your serve has such a preposterous implication, I will reply: "oh, do you want the net up for my returns, but not for your serves? Either way the net stays up, or it stays down. If the net is down there are no rules and anybody can say anything, a mug's game if there ever was one. I have been giving you the benefit of the assumption that you would not waste your own time or mine by playing with the net down. ↗

— Daniel C. Dennett

#religion #science #faith

Mental health is often missing from public health debates even though it's critical to wellbeing. ↗

— Diane Abbott

#debates #even #health #mental #mental health

The myth of the liberal media empowers conservatives to control debate in the United States to the point where liberals cannot even hope for a fair shake anymore. ↗

— Eric Alterman

#cannot #conservatives #control #debate #empowers

In Parliament we debate on and we decide the laws that are going to govern the country. ↗

— Diane Abbott

#debate #decide #going #govern #laws

I think the debate in our society now is that people have to agree on zero-tolerance to terrorism. ↗

— King Abdullah II

#debate #i #i think #now #our

This trend of reporting process over substance is unfortunate, if omnipresent. Even worse is the media's inability - or unwillingness - to fact-check Republicans who are angry about the Democrats trying to debate and vote on Iraq policy. ↗

— Eric Alterman

#angry #debate #democrats #even #even worse

Historians don't really like to carry on speculative debates, but you could certainly argue that the likelihood of a Soviet invasion of Western Europe was extremely, extremely low. ↗

— Aldrich Ames

#carry #certainly #could #debates #europe

There is zero debate about whether the world is getting warmer. That is a fact, a measured fact. There is some debate, although not much anymore, about what's causing the world to get warmer. And the consensus, by far is that it's us. ↗

— Peter Barnes

#although #anymore #causing #consensus #debate

Science fiction works best when it stimulates debate. ↗

— Greg Bear

#debate #fiction #science #science fiction #stimulates

Instant telecommunication allows better and updated information, lessons learnt and problems encountered to be exchanged and debated, it alerts us more quickly to problems and brings to many households around the world visions and information which hopefully spur us to action. ↗

— Carol Bellamy

#alerts #allows #around #better #brings