RolfAndreassen comments on Anti-rationality quotes - Less Wrong

7 Post author: PhilGoetz 17 April 2009 05:55PM

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Comment author: RolfAndreassen 17 April 2009 07:45:29PM 4 points [-]

I think there is a large asymmetry between rationality quotes and unrationality quotes. The first strive to set a good example, or in some cases just to be funny while still true. So you can go through a long list of quotes and pick out the best ones, and accomplish your purpose. But unrationality quotes are attempting to demonstrate a preponderance, even a dominance, of dis-rationality over rationality in a particular tradition. For this it is not sufficient to cherry-pick a round dozen quotes from 2 millennia; you must also demonstrate that there are not counterweights to the ones you show. For all we know from what you've shown, these are the bottom 10% of Christian thinking; the rationality quotes, on the other hand, are avowedly picked from the top 10%.

Your thesis may still be true, indeed I think it is, but the quotes do not demonstrate it.

That said, the post might be a useful Dark Side weapon for making the first chink in someone's armour of rationalisations.

Comment author: PhilGoetz 17 April 2009 08:31:01PM *  2 points [-]

For all we know from what you've shown, these are the bottom 10% of Christian thinking; the rationality quotes, on the other hand, are avowedly picked from the top 10%.

Supposing there have been 2 billion Christians, all of the quotes are by authors who I would say are in the top .000002% of Christian thinking. (Criteria for selection was having a "2 per century" reputation.)

Also see my response to gjm, below.