If Joseph Smith was not a prophet, do you desire to believe that Joseph Smith was not a prophet?
Yes.
Are you a rationalist? Did you convert because you were rationally persuaded to convert?
Well, I’m trying to be what you call a rationalist now, but I wasn’t then. Are you claiming that only rationalists are capable of making rational decisions?
Perhaps a rationalist is someone who is striving, against the current, to make rational decisions.
If you go to a roulette wheel, you can make a lot of choices, as long as they’re red or black—not green. You may lose, you may win. If you play and you place your chips on thirteen and then the ball lands in thirteen, you will be happy for a bit, but I would not call you a rationalist. I would say the rationalists in the game would be those who either choose not to play, or else the house, running the game. I would say the person who bet on thirteen made a successful but not rational decision.
In the end, I would have to say that there are degrees of rationalists and degrees of rationality. Only rationalists of some level are capable of making decisions of some degree of rationality.
Yes.
Well, I’m trying to be what you call a rationalist now, but I wasn’t then. Are you claiming that only rationalists are capable of making rational decisions?
Perhaps a rationalist is someone who is striving, against the current, to make rational decisions.
If you go to a roulette wheel, you can make a lot of choices, as long as they’re red or black—not green. You may lose, you may win. If you play and you place your chips on thirteen and then the ball lands in thirteen, you will be happy for a bit, but I would not call you a rationalist. I would say the rationalists in the game would be those who either choose not to play, or else the house, running the game. I would say the person who bet on thirteen made a successful but not rational decision.
In the end, I would have to say that there are degrees of rationalists and degrees of rationality. Only rationalists of some level are capable of making decisions of some degree of rationality.
Quite clearly not.