Catawumpus <kimmerian@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> Jonah Thomas <jethomas5@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>s:
>
> > Not to put words (or anything) in Catawumpus's mouth, here's a
> > potential argument. The problem is that god/{the
> > universe}/{whoever-or-whatever is in complete control of everything}
> > is unfair. Whoever has complete control ...
>
> Poor Jonah. He's unable to stop talking about the problem
> of evil even though -- or maybe I should say because -- the
> debate went terribly for him. But he's short on good arguments
> and his bad ones didn't work, so he's gone back to his old
> trick of trivializing the ones against him, e.g. pretending the
> many ills of life in the world can be reduced to the wrong
> choice of shoes, a tacit admission he can't make a cogent reply.
Silly Catawumpus, I wasn't talking to you. I was presenting an argument
that we shouldn't be optimistic even though there's evidence it improves
our health and our ability to grab at op****tunities. If you don't like
my argument and you want to present a better one, go ahead. If you
present an argument that has certain similarities to mine you're welcome
to argue that the differences are im****tant. Or you can ignore any
similarities, or whatever you want. You can even keep to your old
standby of personal attacks and misrepresentation.
Anyway, I was not asrguing against your central opinion which is after
all a judgement that is not subject to rational discussion. No disputing
tastes. I was pointing out that people have a big variety of shared
experience about how to avoid particular problems. It's widely believed
that the wrong shoes will cause bunions, and that people don't get
bunions without the wrong shoes. People who don't wear shoers never get
bunions. Similarly, everybody in New Orleans knew that the city was
below sea level and still subsiding, and that if the pumps ever quit the
city would flood. If you wanted to be sure that wouldn't happen, you
chose to live somewhere else. Similarly, everybody knows that if you
live too close to Wa****ngton DC you're risking getting nuked. Millions
of people choose to live in or near DC despite this.
Close to half the US population gets cancer sometime during their lives,
and over a quarter of them die of it. Our experts' best estimate is that
more than 80% of the cancers come from things we put into the
environment. As a society we have chosen to put minimal restrictions on
that. We screen out the worst carcinogens with rather superficial
testing, usually carried out by the low bidder and paid for by the
company that wants to spread the new chemical. Of course if we did
everything right as far as we know, we'd still get some cancers. And any
world where even one person gets cancer sometime in history is still
subject to your opinion that God Is Evil.
We think we know lots of methods to avoid dangers. Maintaining optimism
is one of them, if it's done right. But your opinion has nothing to do
with methods to survive and prosper in the world as it is. That sort of
thing is only interesting to people who intend to live here.
|
