I jumped the gun on Blumenthal

I was taken in on the edited video clip supplied by the New York Times. Here is the 6 minute speech that the NY Times edited down to a sound bite:

And here he is in a debate:

Moral: when I feel outraged, wait a day or two or at least dig a bit.

On another note: this article by Mano Singham is interesting:

The main reason that atheists deny that god exists is because there is no credible evidence for him/her/it. In trying to meet this challenge, religious people tend to split two ways, those who accept the need for evidence and those who think evidence is unnecessary for belief.

Ordinary religious believers tend to say that yes, they do so have evidence. When asked to specify what this evidence consists of, they tend to talk of personal experience of the presence of god, miracles, and things they consider to be deep and insoluble mysteries (like the origin of life or the universe). [...]

The more sophisticated theologians and philosophers realize that the kinds of evidence that are produced in favor of god can be easily shot down by skeptics and so now they don’t even try. They tend to make the best of a bad situation by finding ways to pooh-pooh the whole notion of evidence, saying that we atheists are wrong to be tied to such mundane matters as material evidence or even raise the question of the actual existence of a god, and must open our eyes to appreciate the deep and sublime truths about the nature of god that evidence cannot touch.

This strikes me as total hogwash, the kind of pseudo-reasoning that only an intellectual can come up with. At least ordinary religious people realize the need for evidence, even if they cannot produce any credible evidence.

Why am I posting this? I have facebook friends that argue with me over this all of the time. Also, there seems to be “understood assumption” that the “rational” thing to do is to “believe”. Again, I have no issue with those who use religion for their own benefit and don’t try to push their superstitions or bigotry on others.

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