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Culture War Roundup for the week of November 20, 2023

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Im a little drunk on thanksgiving. Can someone tell me the pope having lunch with transgenders is false.

https://twitter.com/richardhanania/status/1727444933207056730?s=46&t=aQ6ajj220jubjU7-o3SuWQ

This was low effort. I think a 7-day ban is too much. But this is still something where as a Catholic you would be like what I’m seeing has to be wrong. I will eat it. This isn’t an unworthy culture war post if it fact checks which from Hannania I assumed he did.

I've said it before and I'll say it again. Christianity is at least as unbacked by evidence and reason as transgender ideology. Believing that a certain man 2000 years ago was the son of god and rose from the dead is at least as unbacked by evidence and reason as believing that a man can become a woman by calling himself a woman and doing surgeries. But many people here on The Motte give Christianity a pass because it's really old and really popular and so it seems "normal", because they like its cultural/political connotations, and probably in some cases because they were raised Christian.

But I don't give Christianity a pass. When people tell me that they are Christian, I have pretty much the same reaction as I have when people try to convince me that a trans woman is a real woman. In both cases, I think that their beliefs are ludicrous and deeply irrational.

Unfortunately, your atheism is at least as unbacked by evidence and reason as either. You are personally as irrational as the trans ideologues, but you give yourself a pass out of pure self-serving smugness. From whence comes equality between methodological constraints of science and metaphysical theory of ontology? It's nothing but really old and really popular and so it seems "normal". You probably like the cultural/political connotations, and you may have been raised to believe such irrational things. If you're going to act like anyone is "given a pass", it is you, and every time you pull this schick, it eats away at the detente that the mods claim to believe in/enforce. The result of you continuing to break down the detente is that, unless the mods continue to protect you, your irrationality will no longer be given a pass. It'll be made clear that you're no different than trans ideologues.

Unfortunately, your atheism is at least as unbacked by evidence and reason as either.

That's a relatively new one in these parts eh? Leave aside arguing why my ideology is superior, let me claim that yours is just as bad. I can see this is an immensely convincing argument.

There is an overwhelming preponderance of evidence that the universe operates according to a mechanistic evolution of relatively simple laws of physics, with no external intervention at all.

To people like Goodguy, the only point is to hear himself call his ideological opponents irrational. That is the ground where the battle has been declared.

There is an overwhelming preponderance of evidence that the universe operates according to a mechanistic evolution of relatively simple laws of physics, with no external intervention at all.

What experiment have you conducted which demonstrates equality between methodological constraints of science and metaphysical theory of ontology?

EDIT:

That's a relatively new one in these parts eh? Leave aside arguing why my ideology is superior, let me claim that yours is just as bad. I can see this is an immensely convincing argument.

Also, it's telling that you didn't come to say that... to Goodguy, who, after all, did nearly nothing but say that someone's ideology is just as bad as another one. Big oof by you, but telling of the fact that you're far more critical of things you're predisposed to disagree with than things you're predisposed to agree with.

it eats away at the detente that the mods claim to believe in/enforce. The result of you continuing to break down the detente is that, unless the mods continue to protect you, your irrationality will no longer be given a pass

"Christianity is wrong and irrational" is not a moddable offense. Neither is "No it isn't." What is this "detente" that you claim is being broken and which we are not enforcing? (ETA: Okay, this one. Yes, that still pertains. You can criticize beliefs, but do it without sneering or personalizing it or trying to evangelize/recruit for a cause.) People are allowed to argue for/against religion and for/against atheism, no matter how tiresome and repetitive such arguments become (but in fairness, so is most well-trodden ground here).

@Goodguy hasn't been "protected" from anything. He can say your beliefs are irrational, and you can say his beliefs are irrational. What we would prefer is that people offer serious arguments rather than "Uh huh!" "Nuh uh!" back and forth. And what we would definitely prefer is that you refrain from trying to personalize it in the antagonistic manner you're doing here.

Any stick'll do.

I've said it before and I'll say it again...

But I don't give Christianity a pass. When people tell me that they are Christian, I have pretty much the same reaction as I have when people try to convince me that a trans woman is a real woman. In both cases, I think that their beliefs are ludicrous and deeply irrational.

What point do you think you are making? I repeat: you are allowed to say Christianity is wrong and irrational. You are allowed to say atheism is wrong and irrational. This is consistent with everything I have said in the past.

Mod hat is as mod hat does. Praise be to mod hat!

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