tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6789188.post2301037162436415096..comments2024-03-27T17:15:37.606-04:00Comments on Triablogue: Creative bookkeepingRyanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17809283662428917799noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6789188.post-24150887989882853522009-02-11T09:02:00.000-05:002009-02-11T09:02:00.000-05:00D SAID:“It seems you're striking a false equivalen...D SAID:<BR/><BR/>“It seems you're striking a false equivalence between becoming nonexistent (the atheist's ‘black hole’) versus eternally existing in suffering (the Xian hell).__It's difficult to articulate just how categorically different these two outcomes are, and thus how differently the believer should feel about hell versus the unbeliever about death.”<BR/><BR/>i) Two things can be analogous at the relevant point of comparison without having to be identical.<BR/><BR/>ii) There’s a common fear of death, whether what we fear is oblivion or damnation. Therefore, each outcome is comparable at the level of fear.<BR/><BR/>iii) In addition, whatever happens to your loved ones when they die, whether oblivion or damnation, you still lose them to death. They cease to be available to you. Therefore, each outcome is comparable at the level of loss. <BR/><BR/>Hence, the parallel holds at the relevant point of comparison.<BR/><BR/>“And I think this entire line of argument would support many atheists' contentions about religion being death-centered.”<BR/><BR/>i) There’s irrelevant to my argument, the point of which was to expose the inconsistency of atheism in this respect.<BR/><BR/>ii) In addition, so what if religion is death-centered? Why shouldn’t religion be death-centered? You might as well object to oncology as cancer-centered. Or the ER as trauma-centered. Or FEMA as disaster-centered. <BR/><BR/>iii) The atheist would be death-centered if he thought death were avoidable. <BR/><BR/>iv) Apropos (iii), some unbelievers are quite death-centered, viz.<BR/><BR/>http://www.mprize.org/<BR/><BR/>http://www.americancryonics.org/<BR/><BR/>http://www.cryonics.org/index.html<BR/><BR/>http://www.foresight.org/Nanomedicine/Uploading.html<BR/><BR/>http://www.kurzweilai.net/news/frame.html?main=/news/news.html?cat%3D14%26d%3D0stevehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16547070544928321788noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6789188.post-51880439302160883372009-02-11T07:51:00.000-05:002009-02-11T07:51:00.000-05:00It seems you're striking a false equivalence betwe...It seems you're striking a false equivalence between becoming nonexistent (the atheist's "black hole") versus eternally existing in suffering (the Xian hell).<BR/><BR/>It's difficult to articulate just how categorically different these two outcomes are, and thus how differently the believer should feel about hell versus the unbeliever about death.<BR/><BR/>And I think this entire line of argument would support many atheists' contentions about religion being death-centered.dhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11095501165543436350noreply@blogger.com