Rationality and Hammers? We come back round to rationality, as well as hammers! What do hammers have to do with rationality? Tune in to find out! The conversation will include, but will not be limited to: What is Rationality? How does Rationality relate to Reason? Are there any tools that can help you with rationality? Without those tools, can you be rational? Is there a limit to rationality? Bonus AMA and guest stars at the end! The Bonus AMA As…
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As a site that promotes reason, we often find we are against popular public opinions. Even though we are atheists by one definition or another, it is often our fellow atheists we are trying to reason with. There are a lot of common opinions many people hold, and they seem to be ingrained within the online community. One of the biggest issues with memes is they are often taken as fact, especially when shared by someone you respect. Whilst atheism,…
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Language is descriptive. It is defined through use. People might describe their use of words in slightly different ways, be that through regional differences, common usages, or indeed there might be contextually correct usages of words. So what is this Normative thing all about then? When we speak about ‘Normative’ usage of words we largely mean they have gone through a process of normalisation. For example, the word ‘Hello’ has gone through this process and is generally regarded as a…
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The 3rd in the Bad Atheist Arguments series is now here. Having covered the ‘Bible and Evidence‘ in volume 1, and ‘Beliefs and Propositional Logic‘ in volume 2, I felt it time to address philosophy, fallacies, and general errors in our reasoning. Whilst there are a number of common theistic fallacies, we atheists forget sometimes that we too are human and have errors in our logic. In fact, many disagree with the last article due to a lack of understanding…
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Following on from volume 1: Bible and Evidence, I felt it prudent to follow this up with errors many fellow atheists make around beliefs. I too have made some of these statements in the past, and as I looked into things more I realised that some of these statements just don’t make sense or if they do, are wrong. What is a belief? Before we continue, we should consider what a belief really is, as many think it is simply…
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I’ve had the “Burden of Proof” discussion many times recently, and a lot of it comes down to semantic issues with definitions of claim & belief, as well as the logic around propositions.
I hope to clear up some of the confusion with this article….
Unbelief (or non-belief) and disbelief are two words that seem to be conflated by many folks on the internet. I’m not sure if this is down to a misunderstanding of their definitions, or just due to how they are quite similar words. I’ve recently written a few articles that are worth reading before this article, but are not a requirement. CMT 5 – I Don’t Believe Why should we use the rules of logic? These articles speak about the descriptive…
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I have written a few articles recently speaking of logic, propositions, and beliefs. Some folks agree, and others do not, so I thought I would expand on why I believe we should be using the rules of logic. In CMT5 – I don’t believe, I tried to explain the difference between how folks used the term normatively and descriptively. I think there could be confusion around what those terms mean in the first place so let’s start there. The difference…
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When people say “I don’t believe” it is unclear what they are saying. When many folks say this, they are discussing a psychological state rather than disbelief in a normative logical sense. But what does that mean? Logic and Belief Propositions By belief proposition, I am essentially saying believing a proposition to be true, or an attitude towards a particular proposition. A belief is something you accept to be true. In logic you essentially have: P1 – a proposition you…
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In the last episode of the season we thought it prudent to cover reason as it is our namesake. What better to pair with reason, other than rationality? Show Contents We have a full house tonight, with Dave, Martijn, Kriss, Andy and Joe in tow. Definitions Reasons to believe, and if they are rational or irrational Altruism/RHB Diversions Thought Experiments Spotlight of the Week Fallacy of the Week (Request by Darth Killa) Related Links Belief, Truth, and Knowledge Common Theistic…
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