One of the things I most enjoy is listening in on arguments between believers and non-believers. Furthermore, some of the best discussions are within believer and non-believer debates. Last week, Andrew Sullivan had a series of posts that concluded with reader feedback. A reader comment so perfectly encapsulates this debate, that I just had to post it here:
Something I find annoying about this atheist-believer dispute is that it all depends on what you mean by "god". If you require the talking snake, then, yeah, Dennet rules, in my opinion. But if you are some sort of mystic or pantheist and you experience that as "faith," then the the naivete of Dennet's arguments is indeed grating. The exquisitely beautiful, scientific worldview is rife with chaos, weirdness, randomness, unknowns and chance. And chance is mystery, and mystery is at the heart of religion. And that's at the heart of this dispute. To be a scientific atheist and assert scientific certainty about the world when, in fact, the scientific model is so full of uncertainty is, yes, just as irritating as the arguments of naive religious fundamentalists. Both assert that they know in a way that denies the mystery.
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