Re: [asa] 10 Books That Screwed Up the World

Ted,

As for your last point, that is certainly true, but from the
perspective of the "herd," the reading of sources "as you like it" is
indeed sanctioned and encouraged. In my experience, the reason for
this is that a reasoned exchange of ideas is not foremost on the
herd's mind, but protection of an identity. It is OK to pull out all
the stops--even willingly misrepresent--if what is at stake is nothing
less than an entire world view that they know simply must be correct,
or all else will begin to unravel. Since you know you are right, you
only need treat counter-evidence in whatever way necessary to maintain
your own position. In other words, the reason why reason does not work
with the herd is because the real issue is not truth but social
identity.

Pete Enns

On Sep 8, 2009, at 10:07 AM, Ted Davis wrote:

> I am in general not impressed with Ben Wiker's understanding of
> early modern sources, such as Descartes (in this particular book) or
> Boyle and Newton (in his earlier book, "Moral Darwinism." I've
> commented on the latter at length in the fairly distant past. The
> fact that Descartes was a serious theist who used scepticism to
> undermine scepticism -- including scepticism about God -- is
> apparently all it takes for Wiker to put "Discourse on Method" on
> his own little version of the Index, or at least on the list of
> other candidates.
>
> You can get noticed by the herd, if you speak loudly and often
> enough. That doesn't constitute a license to read the sources as
> you like it.
>
> Ted
>
>
>
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Received on Tue Sep 8 10:48:49 2009