Nick, are Hindus and other polytheists/animists/what-have-you atheists?
Nick Tarleton may change in many ways, but his DNA will not. As our genes are selfish, they cause us to single out the carrier of those genes (ourselves) as special and distinct from others and generally favor ourselves over others. This does remind me a bit of Lachmann vs Nozick on how far reductionism should go.
Matthew C, why does “Awareness” get a capital “A” and what do you mean by its “fundamental unity”?
I would just like to point out that Nick’s “definition of an atheist” was to “n[o]t believe in God. Polytheists do believe in a god, and another god, and then some more, so of course that isn’t atheism. As for animism, that’s completely compatible with belief in God, but I’d say it’s also compatible with atheism. It’s not rational, but there are certainly atheists in the world who aren’t rational. I’m often annoyed at all the connotations that go along with atheism; really, it’s hardly a category at all. It’s like the article here about selling nonapples: http://lesswrong.com/lw/vs/selling_nonapples/.(Incidentally, I didn’t see anything in that particular quote from Samuel Harris that seemed irrational, either, although I fully admit that I know very little about him, so for all I know, he might be).
Nick, are Hindus and other polytheists/animists/what-have-you atheists?
Nick Tarleton may change in many ways, but his DNA will not. As our genes are selfish, they cause us to single out the carrier of those genes (ourselves) as special and distinct from others and generally favor ourselves over others. This does remind me a bit of Lachmann vs Nozick on how far reductionism should go.
Matthew C, why does “Awareness” get a capital “A” and what do you mean by its “fundamental unity”?
I would just like to point out that Nick’s “definition of an atheist” was to “n[o]t believe in God. Polytheists do believe in a god, and another god, and then some more, so of course that isn’t atheism. As for animism, that’s completely compatible with belief in God, but I’d say it’s also compatible with atheism. It’s not rational, but there are certainly atheists in the world who aren’t rational. I’m often annoyed at all the connotations that go along with atheism; really, it’s hardly a category at all. It’s like the article here about selling nonapples: http://lesswrong.com/lw/vs/selling_nonapples/.(Incidentally, I didn’t see anything in that particular quote from Samuel Harris that seemed irrational, either, although I fully admit that I know very little about him, so for all I know, he might be).