Tuesday, June 26, 2012

The ghostly atheist inside the machine


It takes a very good memory to be a consistent atheist. Poor little atheists keep forgetting their lines. That’s because the script of atheism is so unnatural that the atheist invariably slips back into reality despite his best efforts to the contrary. Atheism is studied insanity punctuated by moments of uncontrollable lucidity. 

Jeff Lowder is very disapproving of how atheists are (allegedly) mistreated by theists. But what is an atheist? What is a human being?

Jeff is a physicalist, an atheist, and a Darwinian. So, by his own lights, Jeff is just a mammal with a cerebral cortex.

He disapproves of how atheists are (allegedly) mistreated, but that’s just his brain chemistry acting up. What makes his chemical reactions right and mine wrong?

You see, Jeff has fallen into the trap of imagining that there’s a miniature person inside his skull, sitting in the audience, watching himself on stage. But that’s just an illusion caused by the brain. The brain can’t actually reflect on itself–since there is no self distinct from the brain. Jeff can’t see himself in a mental mirror, for there is no distinction between observer and mirror. That’s the brain playing tricks on itself. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cartesian_theater#/media/File:Cartesian_Theater.svg

No comments:

Post a Comment