Reply To: Reeling from Christian friend's bigotry

[DrBob]

the horrors of the Church and it’s past, child raping priests, woman hating, fag hating, slavery approving, light thought control, brutal thought policing religion … the very idea as presented to us is so preposterous, so ridiculous, so incredibly stupid and moronic that it should not be taken seriously for even a moment. Should we pay any attention to moronic preposterous claims?

What a marvelous example this argument is. It is an archetype, which can be applied to almost any topic.

“The reason why we should reject anthropogenic climate change is because the very idea as presented to us is so preposterous, so ridiculous, so incredibly stupid and moronic that it should not be taken seriously for even a moment. The earth is just too BIG. The evidence wouldn’t stand up for a moment (outside of those disciplines or groups who actually study the topic). And it’s put forward by those people – the Christian-hating, fraud-perpetrating, grant-money-grubbing, human-experimenting, autism-causing, blah, blah, blah”

Arguments of this form are very emotive. They are successful at rallying the base, generating contributions and support, or getting people to tell you how delightful you are.

Mocking and belittling others-not-like-us touches a deep, primitive part of our psychology if we allow it to. Presented by a strong orator or a good writer, it can even inspire hordes of weak-minded or unreflective followers to do things they would never choose to do on their own, much to the shame of their descendants.

The question is whether that’s really a style of argumentation that we should be proud to embrace? Are we truly comfortable with the outcomes that sort of “reasoning” has led to throughout history?

Oh, I know, I know. This time, belittling and mocking others-not-like-us and attributing horrible crimes specially to their entire group is justified. It always is.