Some of the stuff about “street epistemology”—not what you’ve written yourself, but e.g. those videos by Anthony Magnabosco—strikes me as weird and creepy and manipulative in almost the same way as much Christian evangelism does. Don’t get me wrong; if you’re going to be manipulative at people in order to try to manoeuvre them nearer to your religious position, “street epistemology” is probably about the least odious of your options. But that isn’t a high bar to clear.
I know that in his videos Magnabosco talks about treating your targets with respect, and really listening to them, and so on. I expect Boghossian’s book is the same (but I don’t know; I haven’t read it). But this gives me much the same impression as I had back in my religious days listening to Christians talking about how you have to love people for themselves in order to Win Them For Christ. I mean, look at the title of Boghossian’s book. “A Manual for Creating Atheists”. The believers you’re talking to, doing “street epistemology”, are merely raw material for the creation of atheists.
If it strikes me this way, then I bet religious people encountering this material don’t like it any better than I do, and the site is (secondarily) intended to be suitable for believers to read. You might want to consider toning down your praise of “street epistemology”.
(Not necessarily. I think I am unusually annoyed by, and perhaps unusually sensitive to, attempts at psychological manipulation. Maybe other potential readers will react more positively.)
Some of the stuff about “street epistemology”—not what you’ve written yourself, but e.g. those videos by Anthony Magnabosco—strikes me as weird and creepy and manipulative in almost the same way as much Christian evangelism does. Don’t get me wrong; if you’re going to be manipulative at people in order to try to manoeuvre them nearer to your religious position, “street epistemology” is probably about the least odious of your options. But that isn’t a high bar to clear.
I know that in his videos Magnabosco talks about treating your targets with respect, and really listening to them, and so on. I expect Boghossian’s book is the same (but I don’t know; I haven’t read it). But this gives me much the same impression as I had back in my religious days listening to Christians talking about how you have to love people for themselves in order to Win Them For Christ. I mean, look at the title of Boghossian’s book. “A Manual for Creating Atheists”. The believers you’re talking to, doing “street epistemology”, are merely raw material for the creation of atheists.
If it strikes me this way, then I bet religious people encountering this material don’t like it any better than I do, and the site is (secondarily) intended to be suitable for believers to read. You might want to consider toning down your praise of “street epistemology”.
(Not necessarily. I think I am unusually annoyed by, and perhaps unusually sensitive to, attempts at psychological manipulation. Maybe other potential readers will react more positively.)