That’s Me In The Corner 2.0

Although this is ostensibly a tech blog, it is actually a blog about the 2nd Gutenberg Shift… which is part of the 1st Gutenberg Shift… and part of that is The New Atheism.

So this is about that.

I am strongly on the side of science… a native atheist, but I keep coming across people like this guy:

Who make it abundantly clear that some sort of recalibration is in order. So this is it.

This is my new position on atheism vs faith – which aims to be more inclusive, and… well… useful, basically.

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I have Principles, based on Empathy, Evidence and Art – in that order.

“Atheism” as a label is an empty vessel. Like being “Not and Astrologer”… that is not something worth living by.

As far as I can see, Belief and Faith are (non)cognitive strategies legitimised by tradition, but outside that context are indistinguishable from stupidity, except:

There are people who’s faith makes them far stronger on “Empathy and Art” than many atheists… they are far better people than many atheists. In this context, faith has value, and to dismiss it as stupidity is, in practical terms, a worse stupidity.

So let’s leave the stuff we disagree on for later… preferably until after we’re dead, and meantime, let’s do something with empathy and art – there are whole lifetimes worth of valuable and fun stuff to do here…

…with the overarching proviso: that we take the approach “Let’s see if this works”, and if it doesn’t, we reassess what we’re trying to do.

Amen.