{"id":8058,"date":"2014-03-24T14:05:21","date_gmt":"2014-03-24T14:05:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2014\/03\/24\/the-most-powerful-argument-against-religious-faith-ever-2\/"},"modified":"2014-03-24T14:05:21","modified_gmt":"2014-03-24T14:05:21","slug":"the-most-powerful-argument-against-religious-faith-ever-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2014\/03\/24\/the-most-powerful-argument-against-religious-faith-ever-2\/","title":{"rendered":"The Most Powerful Argument Against Religious Faith Ever?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Over at the The Philosopher's Stone<\/em>, Robert Paul Wolff waxes enthusiastic<\/a> over a quotation from Hobbes:<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

"Fear<\/em> of power invisible, feigned by the mind, or imagined from tales publicly allowed, RELIGION; not allowed, SUPERSTITION."<\/span><\/p>\n

Just think what Hobbes accomplishes in these eighteen words!  The only distinction between religion and superstition is whether the tales that provoke our fear of things invisible are allowed or not allowed.  It is the law, the will of the sovereign, that constitutes the difference betwixt the two.  I think that single sentence may be the most powerful argument against religion faith ever written.<\/span><\/p>\n

There, now I can face another evening of bloviating pundits.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

I grant that the Hobbes quotation is a stylistically dazzling English sentence.  But I find no non-question-begging argument in it, just a series of assertions:<\/span><\/p>\n

1. The object of religious belief is an invisible power.<\/span>
2. This object evokes fear.<\/span>
3. The fear-evoking object of religion is imaginary, hence nonexistent.<\/span>
4. Religious and superstitious belief have the same object.<\/span>
5. There is no intrinsic difference between religion and supersition; the only difference is a relational one.  Belief in an imaginary,  fear-evoking invisible power is religion if the sovereign allows it. Otherwise it is superstition.<\/span><\/p>\n

If this is the best the anti-religionists can do, they are in sad shape.<\/span><\/p>\n

Meanwhile over at Oxford University, Vince Vitale  maintains<\/a> that God or rather God-belief is not dead.  Watch the video.  My old atheist friend Quentin Smith is quoted.  (Note that 'old friend' does not imply that the friend is old; but Quentin is.) 
<\/span><\/p>\n

\nRelated articles<\/legend>\n
\n
\"\"<\/a>Religious Belief and What Inclines Me to It<\/a><\/div>\n
\"\"<\/a>Whether Atheism is a Religion<\/a><\/div>\n
\"\"<\/a>Realms of Experience Beyond the Natural<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/fieldset>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Over at the The Philosopher's Stone, Robert Paul Wolff waxes enthusiastic over a quotation from Hobbes: "Fear of power invisible, feigned by the mind, or imagined from tales publicly allowed, RELIGION; not allowed, SUPERSTITION." Just think what Hobbes accomplishes in these eighteen words!  The only distinction between religion and superstition is whether the tales that provoke … Continue reading “The Most Powerful Argument Against Religious Faith Ever?”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[191,139,330],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8058","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-atheism-and-theism","category-religion","category-superstition"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8058","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8058"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8058\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8058"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8058"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8058"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}