When (if ever) have you deferred to your philosophical or theological system over your intuitions?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nI am not of settled mind on a lot of things. Over the years I\u2019ve done a lot of philosophical reading and one of the prime conclusions that I\u2019ve come to (from Kant, Heidegger and others) is that the man who has fully formed a static system of thought and put in the last stone is no longer really living. So I keep my thoughts free, am open to hearing them challenged, and try to consider new ideas with the degree of seriousness they seem to merit. Do I bow absolutely to my \u201csystem\u201d when it contradicts an apparent truth? No. My system is not so rigid. Do I recognize that sometimes prejudice blinds us, and that deeply ingrained habits of thought conceal important truths behind a screen of \u201cbarbarism\u201d or \u201cobscurantism\u201d? Yes. So I stick to my best judgment, even when it contradicts long-held intuitions, and I try to weigh all things equally with the hope that the truth, ultimately, will win out by virtue of its clarity, simplicity, and completeness.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Are there people whose opinions on morality you trust more than your own? How do you recognize them? How is trusting them different than trusting someone\u2019s opinion on physics?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nTo be quite honest, I try to steer clear of moral nitpicking. Years ago I went through a Camus phase, and had a lot of quasi-profound thoughts about nihilism, abysses and \u201cforging one\u2019s own meaning\u201d. I don\u2019t really buy into that stuff anymore, though it has a pleasant poetic ring to it. Now I\u2019m more of a pragmatist on the whole. What I want is basically to be happy, and for the people I love to be happy, and on better days out of solidarity with the sad set of humanity, I\u2019d like them all to do well too. But common sense tells me that people are different and will do best at work and play, at home or on the job, in very different ways. Do I recognize a real moral authority in the world that has the right to order others around? No, not really. Do I admit that some people thrive best under the supposedly-transcendental guidance of a moral leader? Yes, I do. But do I worry about power politics and manipulation? A bit. Lately, more than a bit.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Can you name any works of art (interpreted pretty broadly: books, music, plays, poetry, mathematical proofs, etc) which really capture the way you see life\/fill you with a sense of awe and wonder? You can give a short explanation or just list a few pieces.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nI like sprawling landscape paintings, the movie Waking Life<\/em>, Kurosawa\u2019s Rashomon<\/em>. Groundhog Day<\/em> is classic, as is Salman Rushdie\u2019s Midnight\u2019s Children<\/em>. Nietzsche writes beautifully, even if he was mostly insane, and I\u2019ve benefitted a lot from Foucault\u2019s historical deconstructions, especially the last few chapters of his History of Madness<\/em>.<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
Click here to judge this entry<\/a><\/strong>, and, once you\u2019ve voted, feel free to speculate and trade theories in the comments or look at other entries in this round<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This is the eleventh entry in the Atheism round of the 2012 Ideological Turing Test for Religion. In this round, the honest answers of atheists are mixed in with Christians\u2019 best efforts to talk like atheists. It\u2019s your job to see if you can spot the difference. The voting link appears at the end of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":127,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[165,166],"class_list":["post-3269","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ideologicalturingtest","tag-atheist-turing-answers-2012","tag-turing-answers-2012"],"yoast_head":"\n
[Turing 2012] Atheist Answer #11<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"This is the eleventh entry in the Atheism round of the 2012 Ideological Turing Test for Religion. In this round, the honest answers of atheists are mixed\" \/>\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\/05\/turing-2012-atheist-answer-11.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"[Turing 2012] Atheist Answer #11\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This is the eleventh entry in the Atheism round of the 2012 Ideological Turing Test for Religion. In this round, the honest answers of atheists are mixed\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/2012\/05\/turing-2012-atheist-answer-11.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Unequally Yoked\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-05-29T08:28:17+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2013-01-10T20:49:19+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/wp.patheos.com.s3.amazonaws.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/files\/2012\/05\/atheist-round-300x285.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\/05\/turing-2012-atheist-answer-11.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/2012\/05\/turing-2012-atheist-answer-11.html\",\"name\":\"[Turing 2012] Atheist Answer #11\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2012-05-29T08:28:17+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-01-10T20:49:19+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/#\/schema\/person\/17ee17592b35b40040d5f5f7ea5ab464\"},\"description\":\"This is the eleventh entry in the Atheism round of the 2012 Ideological Turing Test for Religion. In this round, the honest answers of atheists are mixed\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/2012\/05\/turing-2012-atheist-answer-11.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/2012\/05\/turing-2012-atheist-answer-11.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/2012\/05\/turing-2012-atheist-answer-11.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"[Turing 2012] Atheist Answer #11\"}]},{\"@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. Her further writing can be found at leahlibresco.com.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/author\/leahlibresco\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"[Turing 2012] Atheist Answer #11","description":"This is the eleventh entry in the Atheism round of the 2012 Ideological Turing Test for Religion. In this round, the honest answers of atheists are mixed","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/2012\/05\/turing-2012-atheist-answer-11.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"[Turing 2012] Atheist Answer #11","og_description":"This is the eleventh entry in the Atheism round of the 2012 Ideological Turing Test for Religion. In this round, the honest answers of atheists are mixed","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/2012\/05\/turing-2012-atheist-answer-11.html","og_site_name":"Unequally Yoked","article_published_time":"2012-05-29T08:28:17+00:00","article_modified_time":"2013-01-10T20:49:19+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/wp.patheos.com.s3.amazonaws.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/files\/2012\/05\/atheist-round-300x285.jpg"}],"author":"Leah Libresco","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Leah Libresco","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/2012\/05\/turing-2012-atheist-answer-11.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/2012\/05\/turing-2012-atheist-answer-11.html","name":"[Turing 2012] Atheist Answer #11","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/#website"},"datePublished":"2012-05-29T08:28:17+00:00","dateModified":"2013-01-10T20:49:19+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/#\/schema\/person\/17ee17592b35b40040d5f5f7ea5ab464"},"description":"This is the eleventh entry in the Atheism round of the 2012 Ideological Turing Test for Religion. In this round, the honest answers of atheists are mixed","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/2012\/05\/turing-2012-atheist-answer-11.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/2012\/05\/turing-2012-atheist-answer-11.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/2012\/05\/turing-2012-atheist-answer-11.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"[Turing 2012] Atheist Answer #11"}]},{"@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. Her further writing can be found at leahlibresco.com.","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/author\/leahlibresco"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3269","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/127"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3269"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3269\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3269"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3269"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3269"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/84\/2012\/05\/atheist-round.jpg\" "\\"atheist")
<\/a><\/p>\n