By: My uncle Angus puts sugar on his porridge « Right To Think

My uncle Angus puts sugar on his porridge « Right To Think — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 08:56:41 +0000

[...] by this post at Breaking Spells and this post at Real [...]

By: the chaplain

the chaplain — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 00:41:40 +0000

We’ll never be able to refute definitively whether people like McGrath and Cameron were really atheists or just apatheists. I know you’re not trying to argue the validity of their claims, which would be a futile undertaking, your point is about whether such claims make a good foundation for their subsequent arguments. As you noted, they do not. As you’ve noted, the most that is accomplished by such claims is the acquisition of some “street cred” with uncritical listeners. It’s sort of like an appeal to authority fallacy – I’m an authority on atheism because I was an atheist once. I have to caution myself against saying, “they weren’t true atheists,” as that statement is a mirror image of the common – and irritating – “but you weren’t True Christian” bomb that theists toss out at former believers.

Comments on: The “Street Cred” of Supposed “Former Atheists”

By: My uncle Angus puts sugar on his porridge « Right To Think

By: the chaplain