#rationality

[artist-issues]

Yesterday my German coworker yelled at me because she firmly believes no world religion can know anything, for sure, about God, so there’s no way to call anyone “right” or “wrong.”

And it took all my strength not to say, “so you’re saying I’m wrong”

because truth in love, truth in love

But seriously. What actually is the deal with the discourse that goes: “you can’t know anything for sure about God.”

“Wait, yes you can, like I know you well enough to know for sure that you’re from ____ Place—“

“—no no, no, that’s different. This is about God.”

“How’s it different?”

“You can’t say someone’s wrong about God.”

“…Well, can I say anything that’s wrong about you? Like, if I say, ‘_____ Person likes to kick puppies,’ can’t you say I’m wrong about you?”

“Yes but I’m not God.”

“Right, but you’re a real person who exists, so there are some things that I can know for sure about you—“

“THAT’S DIFFERENT”

No it’s not! It’s not ‘different.’ Quit acting like it’s different. Christians don’t believe in a set of ideals or the properties of rocks or some mystical vibe that nobody can be right or wrong about. We believe in a living and existing deity with an unchanging, eternally constant personality, and will, and DESIGN, outside of ourselves. So we can be wrong about Him. You can be wrong about Him. Everyone can be wrong—OR RIGHT—about Him, because He actually exists.

He’s not some imaginary friend who’s open to anybody’s interpretation. You get to claim an independent identity, character traits, and a personal history, but the God of the universe doesn’t? What is happening?

I’ll tell you what’s happening. You’re fine with me believing in an imaginary figment that’s only real to me, but as soon as He starts having an effect on the outer world, as if He actually exists and you have to start making some decisions based on that fact, THEN you’re not fine.

#Christianity #evangelism #discourse #it’s not profitable to talk about this with the person who keeps repeating themselves in person #so you all get to read about it here instead #because they’re not actually open #and nobody ever got “argued” into heaven #evangelical Christianity #organized religion #rationality #reason #reasonableness

[philosophybits]

A man is so prone to systems and to abstract conclusions that he is prepared to distort the truth on purpose, prepared to deny the visible and the audible just so he can justify his own logic.

Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Notes from Underground

#philosophy #quotes #Fyodor Dostoyevsky #Notes from Underground #abstract #abstractions #systems #logic #reason #rationality #truth

[victoriadallonfan]

I find “rational” Worm fanfics amusing

Because the authors never realize that Worm already has a “rational” character and his name is Accord.

And everyone in setting hates Accord because he’s a smug asshole, and his optimal way of thinking ends with him cut in half by his own actions.

#parahumans #wildbow #ward #ward web serial #worm #wardblr #worm web serial #wormblr #rationalism #rationality #rational Fics #rat fics

[strangelittlestories]

There’s a thing which really gets my goat, right.

And I mean *really* yanks my yak. Snatches my sheep. Appropriates my antelope.

It’s when a certain kind of person claims to be a rational, emotionless and objective being … with such certainty and with such zeal that it is *extremely irrational*.

Like they’re trying to be Spock or Data and have totally missed the point of those stories about finding and balancing humanity. 

And I think that’s very unsexy of them (which is tragic, given the sexiness of Spock/Data).

And it’s not just the near-religious fervour with which they fellate the rationality fallacy.

It’s that these Very Rational Men™ (because they are so often men) fully ignore how *unscientific* their view is.

Like how the best way to convince someone is to empathise with them, not to confront or antagonise them or just tell them they’re wrong.

Like how emotions are deeply connected to decision-making, helping to make choices quickly and in line with your values.

Is there a word for this kind of rational zealotry? If there isn’t one, can I suggest Toxic Spock Syndrome.

p.s. I realise I’m also coming at this from a place of certainty/antagonism, but hey: I’m an emotional person and I’m having an emotionally informed opinion, buttfaces.

#shower thoughts #rationality #toxic spock syndrome #toxic debate culture #emotions #emotions are good actually

[thirdity]

To see human beings as signifying animals — even outside the practice of verbal language — and to see that their ability to produce and to interpret signs, as well as their ability to draw inferences, is rooted in the same cognitive structures, represent a way to give form to our experience.

Umberto Eco, Semiotics and the Philosophy of Language

#language #signs #signification #symbols #reason #rationality #form #quotes #Eco #Umberto Eco #Semiotics and the Philosophy of Language

[hexagr]

The jobs of the magician, the priest, the mathematician, the psychiatrist, and the philosopher are approximately all the same: to let you know what deep shit you're in so that you can begin trying to save yourself.

[lordascapelion]

Good rhetorical technique to try out next time you’re arguing with someone: Ask “what would you need to see to believe otherwise?”

If they can’t answer that, you are likely dealing with an ideologue and probably wasting your time.

#rationality #logic #debate #ideology #ideological possession

[catmint1]

I don't know why people expect art to make sense. Life doesn't make sense.

—David Lynch

#quotes #david lynch #on art #rationality #life doesn't make sense. #text

[philosophybitmaps]

#philosophy #quotes #Ursula K. Le Guin #The Lathe of Heaven #Le Guin #reason #rationality #means #ends #instrumentality #ethics

[dougielombax]

Being an atheist doesn’t automatically make you smarter or any more rational.

I’ve met many atheists who are fucking morons and/or insufferable edgy nihilistic pricks.

Mind you the same can be said for being religious. I’ve encountered plenty of religious fundamentalist idiots.

Including a few on this very site.

But still.

#dougie rambles #personal stuff #vent post #political crap #religion #atheism #idiocy #Brainrot #rationality #or lack thereof

[michaelbogild]

You see, in life, lots of people know what to do, but few actually do what they know. Knowing is not enough! You must take action.

Toni Robbins

#Toni Robbins #knowledge #logic #reason #rationality #science #philosophy #intelligence #iq #intelligent #smart #lazy #laziness #truth #quote #quotes #words

[philosophybits]

When even the dictators of today appeal to reason, they mean that they possess the most tanks. They were rational enough to build them; others should be rational enough to yield to them.

Max Horkheimer, "The End of Reason"

#philosophy #quotes #Max Horkheimer #The End of Reason #force #power #reason #rationality #politics

[grandpasessions]

On the Absence and Unknowability of God

C. Yannaras

#yannaras #christianity #hegel #rationality #value #utility #heidegger #empirical #logical #ontology #theory #theology #philosophy

[pratchettquotes]

Granny stared at him. She hadn't faced anything like this before. The man was clearly mad, but at the heart of this madness was a dreadful cold sanity, a core of pure interstellar ice in the center of the furnace. She'd thought him weak under a thin shell of strength, but it went a lot further than that. Somewhere deep inside his mind, somewhere beyond the event horizon of rationality, the sheer pressure of insanity had hammered his madness into something harder than diamond.

Terry Pratchett, Wyrd Sisters

#granny weatherwax #esme weatherwax #duke felmet #wyrd sisters #discworld #terry pratchett #villain #evil #sanity #insane #weakness #strength #rationality #psychology #a dreadful cold sanity #the event horizon of rationality

[thirdity]

Inner experience … is not easily accessible and, viewed from the outside by intelligence, it would even be necessary to see in it a sum of distinct operations, some intellectual, others aesthetic, yet others moral. … It is only from within, lived to the point of terror, that it appears to unify that which discursive thought must separate.

Georges Bataille, Inner Experience

#experience #internality #subjectivity #thought #reason #rationality #feelings #emotions #quotes #Bataille #Georges Bataille #Inner Experience

[hexagr]

It is in the nature of animals to lack grace. To reflexively react. To fight. To flee. To devour. To teem with fecundity.

Mankind also possesses these abilities, but with the additional ability that leaves him capable of silently contemplating and reflecting on all of these things with language.

And I'm not sure who is better off. Animals or mankind.