And of course, from a wider perspective, the existence of Binkers is not evidence, one way or another, for any kind of ontological claim for or against God. At best, it queries whether numinous experience and Binkers correlate, which in itself would be an interesting study. My personal Binkers, which I called Daimones after Walter Jon William’s “Aristoi”, were never divine in nature; my numinous experiences never involved Binkers.

Best wishes!

But these days I have settled into a comfortable space whereby atheistic evangelism is simply amusing, rather than causing me to get angry. As someone who was bullied by atheists at school I have always had difficulty with people who are trying to convince me that atheism is a superior way of life to other religious positions, but now at least I enjoy the irony.

What modern atheism needs, and soundly lacks, is a proponent who can proselytise atheism on its strengths (does it have any?) and not by attacking religious belief. If the argument *for* atheism is merely the arguments *against* other religions, then atheism would seem to have less to offer than agnosticism, which avoids all the extreme belief systems equally.

(In this regard, let’s not forget that prior to the September 11th terrorist attacks, the majority of suicide bombers were atheists – specifically, members of the Marxist-influenced Tamil Tigers, who pioneered the concept of suicide bombing. This doesn’t mean that every atheist is a terrorist, but it does show that any belief system can be dangerous when it is allowed to become fanatical).

On the whole, I see in Hitchens a demagogue making money from hate-mongering and disrespect of other people’s belief systems. This, to some extent, is the image he has cultivated for himself, and has subsequently profited from. With this in mind, it’s certainly interesting to hear that ‘God Is Not Great’ is a good read. I doubt I will give it a go, but I appreciate getting a different perspective on the man all the same.

Cheers!

Garak is clearly a consequentialist (he is willing to eliminate the Founders without hesitation), yet he has a conscience that never quite goes away, and the implication (never resolved) is that it is precisely Garak’s conscience which has caused him to be exiled. It is this juxtaposition which elevates Garak to another level in terms of character, and I would say also removes him from being a mere archetype.

Best wishes!

I’ll reply immediately so as to keep you subscribed!

I’ve observed in intellectual blogs that I’ve become tired of the ’staleness’ of what they are arguing for. I’m two bad posts away from unsubscribing from Sam Harris (his international reputation is the only thing saving him at the moment).

I think that low volume blogs are good to keep on to, they are less annoying and I make a point of not unsubcribing to people just because I disagree. They have to really do something horrible to merit me walking away from them.

I’m always pleased that I have at least one very vocal reader of this blog!

I would have liked to cut more, but I found it hard to let things go… Fortunately, many of my subscribed blogs are extremely low volume.

Best wishes!