prase comments on The ethics of breaking belief - Less Wrong

16 Post author: thelittledoctor 08 May 2012 08:34PM

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Comment author: prase 11 May 2012 04:24:55PM -1 points [-]

Well, originally you have written "all European Catholics". I don't dispute the existence of cultural Catholics.

Comment author: CuSithBell 11 May 2012 04:49:30PM 4 points [-]

I think that "Consider all the European Catholics who are essentially atheists" should be read as "Consider all the {European Catholics who are essentially atheists}", not "Consider {all the European Catholics}, (who are essentially atheists)".

Comment author: Bart119 11 May 2012 05:38:30PM 1 point [-]

Like CuSithBell, I'll plead the restrictive relative clause interpretation, bolstered by the absence of a comma. I'll also plead common sense as an ambiguity resolution tool. And not only do we have the existence of cultural Catholics, we've got as our first estimate a minimum (if every God-believing French person were a Catholic) of 41% of Catholics who don't subscribe to a vital church teaching.

Comment author: prase 12 May 2012 09:10:24AM 3 points [-]

I apologise for misinterpretation, then. The intended reading didn't occur to me.