[MD] Are theists irrational?

[plattholden at gmail.com]

Hi Steve,

"So convenient a thing it is to be a rational creature, since it enables us to find 
or make a reason for everything one has a mind to do." - Ben Franklin

As Godel's Theorem reminds us, all knowledge is ultimately faith-based. 

Regards,
Platt

On 15 Jan 2010 at 12:13, Steven Peterson wrote:

> Hi all,
> 
> Can an MOQer make the claim that theists are irrational?
> 
> Jeffrey Stout from "Rorty on Religion and Politics:
> "Because Rorty and I have both been persuaded by our pragmatist
> forebears to treat rationality as a more permissive and
> context-sensitive notion than Victorian critics of religious
> superstition took it to be, we are inclined to agree with William
> James that some theists might well be rationally entitled to their
> religious commitments. Thus we are not disposed to join Sam Harris and
> Peter Singer in impugning the rationality of theists en masse. Like
> Harris and Singer, we would like to say that what worries us about
> militant Islamic theocracy, the new religious right, and church
> opposition to same-sex marriage, but we prefer to do so without using
> the concept of rationality as a club."
> 
> Why does pragmatism lead Stout and Rorty to want to drop rationality
> as a way of distinguishing believers from nonbelievers?
> 
> If "some theists [and presumably then not others] might well be
> rationally entitled to their religious commitments," how do we tell
> which ones are rationally entitled and which ones are not?
> 
> Best,
> Steve