From: T0Morrow (T0Morrow@aol.com)
Date: Mon Apr 27 1998 - 15:14:31 MDT
Said I:
>> Like Laplace, I have little need for the god hypothesis.
>> But the atheistic certainty in god's non-existence strikes
>> me as a bit too cock-sure.
Responded otter@globalxs.nl (den Otter):
> Being sure of your case (or at least pretending to be sure) has a memetic
> advantage, and if you're wrong and there *is* a "god", so what? Nothing
> would matter anyway.
Whether or not a claim has a "memetic advantage" hardly settles the issue of
what claims to make. Back when people spoke of "rhetoric" rather than
"memetics" (a fine distinction, I suppose, but one must stay au courant the
buzzwords), they widely recognized that persuasion should stop short of
falsehood.
Tom
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