{"id":1667,"date":"2012-02-01T15:24:28","date_gmt":"2012-02-01T20:24:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/?p=1667"},"modified":"2012-12-03T17:11:05","modified_gmt":"2012-12-03T22:11:05","slug":"radical-skepticism-is-delusional","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/2012\/02\/radical-skepticism-is-delusional.html","title":{"rendered":"Radical Skepticism is Delusional"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I had a lovely weekend arguing with undergraduates and alumni at my debating group\u2019s annual alumni banquet. \u00a0And there was one argument in particular that seems relevant to the topic of this blog. \u00a0Over dinner, one alum was talking about his upbringing in a Christian Science church and was summarizing their bizarre theology.<\/p>\n

Essentially, Christian Scientists think all evil is delusion<\/a>. \u00a0God created a perfect world, and we must resist any illusion that suggest to us that the world is flawed. \u00a0This is why Christian Scientists are anti-medicine; treating a disease means you\u2019re buying into the false idea that disease exists<\/em>.<\/p>\n

We had some fun trying to figure out the logical consequences of this bizarre premise. \u00a0Satan clearly had no place in Christian Science worldview, but how did one account for the Fall? \u00a0Moreover, how do you account for the existence of the delusions themselves? \u00a0They seem like an\u00a0unambiguous\u00a0evil that unambiguously exists (albeit subjectively).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Later on in the dinner, one of the other atheists at the table got into an argument with most of the rest of us about which standards of proof are appropriate for different claims. \u00a0Someone pulled out the \u201cHow do you know<\/em> your mother loves you?\u201d line of questioning. \u00a0It tends to go like this:<\/p>\n

Q:<\/strong> Does your mother love you?
\nA:<\/strong> Yes.<\/p>\n

Q:<\/strong> How do you know?
\nA:<\/strong> She tells me so and her actions back it up.<\/p>\n

Q:<\/strong> How do you know she\u2019s not tricking you?
\nQ:<\/strong> How do you know she has a genuine subjective feeling of love for you and isn\u2019t acting according to societal norms or evolutionary imperatives?
\nQ:<\/strong> How do you know your mother exists?
\nQ:<\/strong> How do you know you\u2019re not a brain in a vat<\/a>?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

At some point during this series, the atheist at the table gave up, bit the bullet, and declared himself agnostic with regard to his mother\u2019s love and his own existence. \u00a0Which was not the result any of us were going for.<\/p>\n

As a last ditch effort to undo the damage we\u2019d done, I pointed out, \u201cLook, we thought the Christian Scientists were\u00a0ridiculous\u00a0for disbelieving in evil, but you\u2019ve done them one better and have disavowed evil, good, and\u00a0everything\u00a0in between.\u201d \u00a0Before dessert was served, he was tentatively endorsing the idea that morality was objective, but still seemed a lot more comfortable in his position of radical doubt.<\/p>\n

This was a prime example of valuing abstraction over the world. \u00a0Once you\u2019re in a fight, it\u2019s easy to prefer the defensible, circumscribed schema to one that actually has content and bears some resemblance to the world in which we live. \u00a0It\u2019s easy to declare yourself a radical skeptic and claim you have nothing to defend while you skewer your opponent for every gap in their philosophy, but it\u2019s cowardly and counterproductive. \u00a0Atheists should declare themselves<\/a> as something more than atheist.<\/p>\n

In my ideal religious debate format<\/a>, I\u2019ve stuck epistemology right up front. \u00a0Rip the band-aid off the wound and maybe you won\u2019t have to play such a crippling defense for the entire rest of the fight.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I had a lovely weekend arguing with undergraduates and alumni at my debating group\u2019s annual alumni banquet. \u00a0And there was one argument in particular that seems relevant to the topic of this blog. \u00a0Over dinner, one alum was talking about his upbringing in a Christian Science church and was summarizing their bizarre theology. Essentially, Christian […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":127,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,5,68],"tags":[35,72],"class_list":["post-1667","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-atheism","category-debatetactics","category-epistemologyphilosophy","tag-bright-college-years","tag-epistemological-modesty"],"yoast_head":"\nRadical Skepticism is Delusional<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I had a lovely weekend arguing with undergraduates and alumni at my debating group's annual alumni banquet. \u00a0And there was one argument in particular that\" \/>\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\/unequallyyoked\/2012\/02\/radical-skepticism-is-delusional.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Radical Skepticism is Delusional\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I had a lovely weekend arguing with undergraduates and alumni at my debating group's annual alumni banquet. \u00a0And there was one argument in particular that\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/2012\/02\/radical-skepticism-is-delusional.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Unequally Yoked\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-02-01T20:24:28+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2012-12-03T22:11:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/wp.patheos.com.s3.amazonaws.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/files\/2012\/01\/modesty-poster.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Leah Libresco\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Leah Libresco\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/2012\/02\/radical-skepticism-is-delusional.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/2012\/02\/radical-skepticism-is-delusional.html\",\"name\":\"Radical Skepticism is Delusional\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2012-02-01T20:24:28+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2012-12-03T22:11:05+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/#\/schema\/person\/17ee17592b35b40040d5f5f7ea5ab464\"},\"description\":\"I had a lovely weekend arguing with undergraduates and alumni at my debating group's annual alumni banquet. \u00a0And there was one argument in particular that\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/2012\/02\/radical-skepticism-is-delusional.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/2012\/02\/radical-skepticism-is-delusional.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/2012\/02\/radical-skepticism-is-delusional.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Radical Skepticism is Delusional\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/\",\"name\":\"Unequally Yoked\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/#\/schema\/person\/17ee17592b35b40040d5f5f7ea5ab464\",\"name\":\"Leah Libresco\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/20e1e6a3a94c4e7928687804a41d888d?s=96&d=mm&r=r\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/20e1e6a3a94c4e7928687804a41d888d?s=96&d=mm&r=r\",\"caption\":\"Leah Libresco\"},\"description\":\"Leah is the author of Arriving at Amen and Building the Benedict Option. 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