Bad Parts of Reason

[quatona]

That's why such an approach is useless.

Well, it is as useless (or useful) as the term itself. I´d agree with "of little use".

 

[BL2KTN]

No, I am speaking as if when a person says "I am a theist" all I get is a label.
"Theist" tells me even less than "atheist" about any "naked something" that it´s meant to point to.
I have spoken to many self-professing theists, and I have experienced that there´s literally nothing (beyond the label) that I can be sure a self-professing theist believe in.

That's why few people introduce themselves as a theist... its an umbrella term for so many more specific beliefs. Monotheist, polytheist, pantheist, panantheist, deist, Christian, Muslim, Hindu... these are all more helpful in determining what, exactly, someone believes.

 

[Gladius]

So reason is good solely from the perspective of superstition?

No, you only asked what the downside was. So I only gave you one upside.

But overall the case for reason amounts to:

It is preferrable to believe as many true things as possible and as few false things as possible. Reason is currently the most effective way discovered/utilised for the human mind to achieve this.

Using reason humans have determined (for example):
a) that the earth revolves around the sun and is not flat
b) how all life on earth reproduces
c) how old the earth is
d) causes and cures for many human and animal diseases

None of these would have been possible without the use of reasoning, and some of them overturned the non-reasoned false beliefs of superstition.

 

[quatona]

That's why few people introduce themselves as a theist... its an umbrella term for so many more specific beliefs. Monotheist, polytheist, pantheist, panantheist, deist, Christian, Muslim, Hindu... these are all more helpful in determining what, exactly, someone believes.

That´s all fine and dandy, but in the post I responded to the operational term was "theist". So I guess Received is the one you want to have a word with, not me.

 

[BL2KTN]

Surely he's not just calling himself a theist. He's got a whole thread dedicated to his universalist Christian position.

 

[quatona]

Surely he's not just calling himself a theist. He's got a whole thread dedicated to his universalist Christian position.

That´s why I didn´t say that he called himself a theist, but said that "theist" was the operational term in his statement, and I but addressed it accordingly.

 

[BL2KTN]

Gotcha - carry on =)

 

[Received]

My ears are burning.