Tuesday, June 16, 2020

Dismantling A Straw-man


Do you have any idea on the fallacy concerning a straw-man? A straw-man is a logical fallacy in which someone misinterprets something to make it easier to refute. 

Here's a good example.

This angry theist is trying his best to refute atheist by uh...trying to refute communism, atheism as a religion, and having a dystopian mindset.

According to the post, "atheism" is a hateful word because it is a "religion" that is critical to other religion. So here's the first straw-man, define atheism as a religion. 

Fact check: Atheism is NOT A RELIGION. It is a label which theists use to distinguish those who don’t have a god-belief. It is not about hating. Doubting a claim doesn't mean you hate the claim. It just means you don't buy it. That's the same with atheism. Atheism is not about hating god. It's about calling in question the existence of a god/or gods due to insufficient evidence.

The post continued saying that atheism is devoid of moral value, and that it's about leaving someone with a dystopian mindset who believe that life is chaotic.

Again, this is plain straw-man.

Atheism is not about moral principles. If the angry theist would like to talk about morality, he should have talked about secular ethics instead. Again, atheism is just about not having a god-belief, but remembers, the existence of secular ethics only follows that we could be morally upright even without a god-belief. Something that the angry theist seems to forget.  

Atheism is not a worldview. When we talk about worldview, atheism will not fit the bill since a worldview includes all your life's philosophy: personal philosophy, theories of value, epistemology, etc. So it would be fallacious to conclude that ALL atheists think life as chaotic. It will depend on the atheist's philosophy in life. He may be stoic, naturalist, or rationalist.  If the angry theist wishes to talk about different god-less worldviews, why not talk about nihilism, secularism, secular humanism, materialism, existentialism or objectivism.  

Dreaming of Justice
One thing the angry theist seems to be looking for is what he called as "Absolute Justice." According to him, atheism doesn't have absolute justice because when an atheist dies, everything goes. In short, believing in god gives comfort with the idea that evil deeds will be revenged!

I think that a theist's view, justice is almost synonymous with the wrath of god. A person dies and his wrongdoings (or sins) are judged by a god - will he be rewarded or punished?

Again, for an atheist like me this is a "comfort food." - You are comforted to think that an unpunished crime in this world will be punishing in the after-life. As I have already said, atheism is just about being a non-believer of god/gods. If you think that an after-life is needed to bring justice, why not be a Buddhists? The Karmic Law on Buddhism may suffice your quest for justice and yet it doesn't need gods. 

There is also another problem with the concept of an "absolute justice." If someone kills in the name of a god, will he be punished? Well, it depends. If he belongs to the victorious church, he will be deeming as innocent. I remember a part of history which the Roman Catholic Church massacred members of the Cathars in 1208. The Papal legate Arnaund, abbot of Citeaux ordered to kill everyone in the town of Beziers. Soldiers asked the abbot how will they distinguished a Cathar to a good Catholic. Arnaund replied to just kill them all and God will know his own. Is this the so-called "absolute justice?"

Now, how about a Muslim killing a Christian? The Muslim kills a Christian because according to the Muslim, the Christian mocked Allah. Let say the Muslim escaped human justice. If he dies will he be punished by his god? How will this scenario fit "absolute justice?"

There's no such a thing as "absolute justice" here on Earth, but just because life sucks, I will not assume (just to comfort me) that there such a thing in the after-life.

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