[MD] new blog

[Platt Holden]

Hi Steve,

Platt:
> > I agree. If someone finds value in believing in God, leprechauns or a
> > rabbit's foot, who is to say they are wrong other than those who 
> > believe
> > everyone should believe what they believe and try to force their 
> > beliefs on
> > others by ridicule, intimidation or at the point of a gun? Freedom to
> > believe is just as much a value as freedom to choose.
> 
> Steve:
> Who is to say that someone is wrong in holding a belief? We all do that 
> all the time about beliefs so long as they are not religious beliefs. 

What we all do all the time doesn't mean it's right. 

> That's why people generally don't hold crazy beliefs.

One man's crazy beliefs is another man's truth. (I'm sure you are familiar 
with Pirsig's view of contrarians.) 

> There are of 
> course nut jobs with all sorts of conspiracy theories. But no one 
> hesitates to call people on such irrational ideas, so such nut jobs are 
> few in number.

So someone who doesn't hold your (or the majority's) beliefs is a "nut 
job?" 

> The idea is to break the taboo in the US of "questioning 
> someone's beliefs." All we are talking about is applying the same 
> conversational pressures to religious beliefs as we would to someone's 
> beliefs about leprechauns, government bailouts, the best laundry 
> detergent, and whether or not the Holocaust actually happened.

Conversational pressures? LIke what? Ad hominem attacks?

> Those of 
> use who do not believe in leprechauns and gods have little doubt that 
> if there is a culture shift where freedom of religion no longer means 
> that religious beliefs are free from the usual conversational pressures 
> on our beliefs then religious people would be few in number.

Say what?

> BTW, for someone who opposes relativism, claiming that no belief is 
> better or worse than any other is a strange thing to say, but it does 
> seem to be typical of conservatives to complain about moral relativism 
> while promoting intellectual relativism.

I believe some beliefs are certainly better than others. My point was that 
I am not so arrogant as to believe I couldn't possibly be wrong. Nor do I 
believe others should believe they are like gods and thus privileged to 
force their beliefs on others. 

As for moral relativism -- that all behavior is equally moral -- I believe 
that's wrong. My moral beliefs follow the MOQ. 

Do you think morality applies to beliefs?

Regards,
Platt