17-May-2011, 12:54 AM
In two unrelated posts, whose juxtaposition here maybe provocative to some of us, a New Age Shaman issues a characteristically smug (and unaesthetically timed) dismissal of the skeptics' stance as merely an artifact of their 'personal disillusion with religion'; and a New Atheist goes to great lengths to present the skeptics' stance as the result of an ongoing scientific examination through which some practices traditionally considered religious will pass muster.
Some ways of addressing accusations of 'slamming the door shut on processes of discovery' which we have seen being used, are a neuro-ethological 'explaining away' with intoxication comparisons, or the Sam Harris line asking us keeping the door ajar but keeping 'mindful watch' so that nothing superstitious surreptitiously creeps in. It maybe a worthwhile exercise to compile other ways of addressing this 'slammed door' accusation and may not be out of place to 'peer-review' to the extent one can, the reports of experiments in this discipline.
Some ways of addressing accusations of 'slamming the door shut on processes of discovery' which we have seen being used, are a neuro-ethological 'explaining away' with intoxication comparisons, or the Sam Harris line asking us keeping the door ajar but keeping 'mindful watch' so that nothing superstitious surreptitiously creeps in. It maybe a worthwhile exercise to compile other ways of addressing this 'slammed door' accusation and may not be out of place to 'peer-review' to the extent one can, the reports of experiments in this discipline.