As a follow-up on my brief entry about the irony of the term “free-thinker”, here’s an article from an atheist, lamenting the credulity of so-called “critical, skeptical people”. This followed a lecture from Richard Carrier, related to his upcoming book arguing against the historicity of Jesus.
An excerpt:
It concerns me that so many people were convinced to reverse their position on the basis of a single, brief talk without (1) checking Carrier’s sources, (2) reading other scholars on the subject, or (3) reading rebuttals of Carrier’s points.
Mind you, this was a roomful of atheists. Critical, skeptical people, right? Not so! Nearly half of them were willing to be instantly persuaded by a single talk without checking any sources or reading any rebuttals. Many of them were totally unaware of how historical scholarship was even done. I feel like I could have made up a bunch of stuff, claimed that it was held by the majority of historians, and then persuaded half the audience to believe that Jesus was a Persian myth.
[…]
Anyway, this is one of a thousand events that lead me to think atheists are not generally more rational or careful than belivers. Thus, my plea to all people is: Do not be quickly persuaded. Investigate. Challenge. Doubt.
Amen, sir. Amen.
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Impressive.
The author is lukeprog, from Common Sense Atheism. You should check out his story. It made me wince a few times.
Sometimes people are simply afraid to say “I don’t know” when they don’t – and that applies to atheists as well as Christians.
Sometimes people are just people. Whether they are atheists or Christians.