{"id":6610,"date":"2009-05-27T06:15:00","date_gmt":"2009-05-27T06:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2009\/05\/brights-our-intellectual-superiors\/"},"modified":"2015-01-01T14:59:34","modified_gmt":"2015-01-01T21:59:34","slug":"brights-our-intellectual-superiors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2009\/05\/brights-our-intellectual-superiors.html","title":{"rendered":"Brights: Our Intellectual Superiors"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

I tend to skim my comboxes and can miss conversations, especially when they involve people who a) play well with others who are b) chatting about subjects that I\u2019ve already hashed over with c) people who are saying the same tired stuff. I figure they\u2019ve got things well in hand and don\u2019t need me to net.nanny them. The up side is: Less work for me. The down side is: you can sometimes miss wonderful replies like this one from reader Rosemarie <\/a>to one of the dumbest atheist tropes out there:<\/p>\n

Atheism is the default position!
Ever looked in on a hospital\u2019s maternity ward? All those little babies in plastic boxes? All atheists. They don\u2019t learn god-belief until they are indoctrinated into the religion by their parents and their environment.<\/em><\/p>\n

This is not a strong argument. Just because something is characteristic of babies doesn\u2019t mean it\u2019s desirable for adults.<\/p>\n

What would you say if someone seriously tried to argue the following:<\/p>\n

\u201cIncontinence is the default position!
\u201cEver looked in on a hospital\u2019s maternity ward? All those little babies in plastic boxes? All incontinent. They don\u2019t learn bowel or bladder control until they are indoctrinated into toilet-training by their parents and their environment.\u201d<\/p>\n

or:<\/p>\n

\u201cInability to speak is the default position!
\u201cEver looked in on a hospital\u2019s maternity ward? All those little babies in plastic boxes? All unable to speak. They don\u2019t learn speech until they are indoctrinated into a particular language by their parents and their environment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Better yet, how about this one:<\/p>\n

\u201cIgnorance of science is the default position!
\u201cEver looked in on a hospital\u2019s maternity ward? All those little babies in plastic boxes? All know nothing about science. They don\u2019t learn it until they are indoctrinated into scientific training by their parents and their teachers.\u201d<\/p>\n

You see? Just because babies don\u2019t know about science doesn\u2019t mean everyone should reject science. Even so, just because babies apparently know nothing about God doesn\u2019t mean everyone should reject God. It doesn\u2019t logically follow.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I scrolled up to see who Rosemarie was replying to and got as far as this mixture of parrot talk and \u201coriginal thinking\u201d:<\/a><\/p>\n

Just like you are a-zeus-ist, a-allah-ist, a-fairy-ist, a-invisible-pink-unicorn-ist\u2026 basically you are very similar to me, you\u2019re an atheist in almost everything but the religion you were indoctrinated into by your environment. I\u2019m just atheistic in a few more things.<\/p>\n

I still have to get to reading some of this Aquinas fellow, though I have the vague suspicion that he doesn\u2019t adress the Plantinga Disaster.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

What cracks me up about this is that the Independent Thinker who tells us he is \u201cjust atheistic in a few more things\u201d is about as thoroughly indoctrinated as you can get. Indeed, the whole \u201catheistic in a few more things\u201d trope is just a repetition of a line that is ceaselessly repeated without a movement of the grey matter by guys like Richard Dawkins, who clearly do all their thinking for my reader Felix. At least Catholics *admit* that they are relying on the thinking of others, even as they think about it and sometimes develop (or refute) that thinking. That\u2019s because they realize that we are creatures who rely on Tradition. But Bold Independent Thinkers like Felix call all this \u201cindoctrination\u201d\u2026 and then proceed to regurgitate catch phrases they\u2019ve been told to repeat by thinkers with minds the depth of a saucer. It never ever occurs to the \u201cWe\u2019re just atheistic about a few more things\u201d crowd to wonder if Christianity\u2019s engagement with other religious traditions might be more complex than a mere blank refusal to acknowledge any truth in them at all. There seems to be no awareness at all of, for instance, C.S. Lewis\u2019 observation, \u201c\u201dWhen I was an atheist, I had to convince myself that 99% of everyone who ever lived on the earth was wrong about the one thing that mattered to them most. However, when I became a Christian, I was able to take a more liberal view.\u201d In other words, a Christian is free to think that every religious tradition has *some* glimmer of insight into the gigantic reality Who is God since he is \u201cthe light that lightens every person.\u201d An atheist, however, is obliged by his indoctrination to assert that every religious tradition is simply false.<\/p>\n

All this is, of course, very funny when you combine it with the claim to be Bright. But what really turns it into comedy gold is when you finish by saying, \u201cI still have to get to reading some of this Aquinas fellow, though I have the vague suspicion that he doesn\u2019t adress the Plantinga Disaster.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yes. And I really have to take a look at this Michelangelo fellow, but I can\u2019t
imagine his work accounts for the artistic insights of Picasso.<\/p>\n

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I tend to skim my comboxes and can miss conversations, especially when they involve people who a) play well with others who are b) chatting about subjects that I\u2019ve already hashed over with c) people who are saying the same tired stuff. I figure they\u2019ve got things well in hand and don\u2019t need me to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":92,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6610","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nBrights: Our Intellectual Superiors<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I tend to skim my comboxes and can miss conversations, especially when they involve people who a) play well with others who are b) chatting about subjects\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2009\/05\/brights-our-intellectual-superiors.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" 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