Many orthodox people speak as though it were the business of sceptics to disprove received dogmas rather than of dogmatists to prove them. This is, of course, a mistake. If I were to suggest that between the Earth and Mars there is a china teapot revolving about the sun in an elliptical orbit, nobody would be able to disprove my assertion provided I were careful to add that the teapot is too small to be revealed even by our most powerful telescopes. But if I were to go on to say that, since my assertion cannot be disproved, it is intolerable presumption on the part of human reason to doubt it, I should rightly be thought to be talking nonsense.
Bertrand Russell
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January 20th, 2007

Moral concerns have no end

posted by Shinka in Freethought |

Mr. Richard Smith, whom my original Lawrence Journal-World letter was directed to has decided to reply in yet another letter. It’s basically the same arguments he put forth in his previous letter, as well as in his (multiple) comments at the Lawrence Journal-World website. I’m not sure if I’m interested in continuing any kind of back-and-forth in the pages of the Journal-World, as my intention isn’t to get the upper hand in an argument. I’m simply interested in informing other people in my area that not everyone thinks like Mr. Smith, and those of us who have no God are quite capable of living fulfilling, moral lives.

Fortunately, despite Richard Smith’s adamant refusal to acknowledge any claims Bruce, Brenda or myself have made, I received a call on my answering machine from Bruce last night thanking me for my letter. I called him back today and he informed me that Brenda was a friend of his and they both thought they should thank me for my letter, as well as invite me to an initial skeptical/freethinkers meeting they’re planning to have soon.

Brenda, as it turns out, happens to be the woman from Lawrence who stayed with a fundamentalist family for the show 30 Days.

They sound like a nice bunch, though possibly a bit older than I, but it could be fun nonetheless.

If anyone’s interested, here’s the sequence of letters:
Moral Concerns by Bruce S. Springsteen(not the singer).
Moral logic - Richard Smith’s reply to Mr. Springsteen
Moral Base - my response to Mr. Smith
Religion, morals - another response to Mr. Smith by Brenda Frei
and another Moral Base, a response to both Brenda Frei and myself

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Comments (One Response)

  1. This is Bruce. Just want to say it’s a good thing Kyle decided to write to the Journal-World, if only so Brenda and I and the rest of the secular/skeptical community here in Lawrence could find him (as we continue to find one another).

    Brenda and I are indeed on the middle-aged side, but the crowd we run with (SOMA at KU in particular) are generally more Kyle’s peers - so I think he will find a good circle of like thinkers here, whicheever way he goes. I’m sure we can bring still more atheists out of hiding, as well - that vast untapped fellowship of closet doubters. The current effort to explicitly promote secular views of life, as against primitive superstition, is bearing fruit already I think. Let the rational revival grow.

    Oh, yes, and Richard Smith is about as confused as he could be. How obliging of his to continue writing to the paper to demonstrate our points about bad moral reasoning among thr religious.

    Bruce Springsteen
    January 20th, 2007
    4:50 pm

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