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PaperclipPerfector  2d ago (text post)   14177 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of April 14, 2025

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Daniel Dennett was part of the New Atheists, and coined the term "deepity" to puncture what he saw as the pseudo-profound bullshit being promoted by theologians or apologists for various faiths. In this, I agree with him. The idea that every event is part of some grand cosmic spiritual plan is, to my mind, one of the more transparent copes bestowed on the human race by religious/spiritual people.

It doesn't have to be "grand" necessarily, but if you believe the universe is filled with purpose by God, I think it's one of the only ways you can see the world as a religious person. You may not understand the religious worldview as well as you think.

Probably I don't understand the religious worldview terribly well, but I think I know it well enough to know it's not worth pursuing.

Perhaps before you publicly denounce other worldviews, you should make an effort to steelman them instead of fighting against caricatures.

I was raised Catholic, I've read significant chunks of the Bible (probably significantly more than most self-identified Christians I've known personally), I've studied the arguments for and against the existence of a personal God for years at a university level. To reiterate - I think I know the worldview well enough to be able to denounce it from a place of knowledge. Your defense of your worldview, frankly, has not persuaded me that there are any massive gaps in my knowledge.

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