[MD] Sam Harris attacks Pragmatism

[John Carl]

Steve,

Really liked it a lot.  I was thinking about "objective reason" with Platt
and Arlo's debate, and keeping your points in mind as I did so.

It really does boil down to a simple and pragmatic concern - without a
common belief in God, you need some external species of "good" by which to
weigh and debate political affairs.  And it seems Pirsig's the only guy to
really hit on this in a meaningful and accessible way.

Do we really have to imagine standing godlike outside of all human practices
> to be able to make sound judgments
> about human practices? If so, then as atheists we are _really_ in trouble.
>
> What do you think?
>
> Best,
> Steve
>

You know what I think.  I think we need Ideals.

John