Saturday, April 14, 2012

Silly Philosopher Admired by Even Sillier Philosopher

How nice! Philosopher Bradley Monton, who doesn't really understand the problems with intelligent design, is pleased that Alvin Plantinga (author of one of the dumbest arguments against naturalism ever constructed) likes his book.

Well, of course, Brad! The useful idiot: an atheist who thinks there's something to intelligent design! What's not to love?

(Don't bother trying to leave comments at Monton's blog. He certainly doesn't allow that!)

10 comments:

Lariat said...

You used to avoid the ad hominems.

Jeffrey Shallit said...

Lariat:

You don't know what "ad hominem" means, do you?

Lariat said...

Calling someone "silly" without a whiff of an explanation.
That's an ad hominem attack.
(Monton's openness to intelligent design, right or wrong, says nothing about his philosophical abilities.)

Luke Barnes said...

Have you written a review of Monton's book? Or Plantinga's work?

Jeffrey Shallit said...

No, an "ad hominem" attack is on the order of "Monton is wrong about philosophy because he's ugly".

You're welcome to read my critique of his book here.

Jeffrey Shallit said...

Right there in the comment (I guess we wrote our comments more or less simultaneously).

Jeffrey Shallit said...

As for Plantinga's EAAN, I more or less view it as an intelligence test. If you can quickly see what is wrong with it, then you have the intelligence of a bright high school student and we can probably have a good conversation. On the other hand, if you view it as interesting or important, then you're not worth discussing anything with.

John said...

This may be slightly off topic, but, is anyone, anywhere, still pretending that ID isn't religious?

Melville said...

There's a wide variety of definitions of "religious". Whoever wants to, can put ID in, or out, of that category, depending on the definition he chooses.

Anonymous said...

Hi John, you're essentially correct. I think you'd only find apologists or those sympathetic to ID pretend that it isn't religious. Though, I don't think they are fooling anyone. ID is pretty transparent. Honestly, I think the Dover trial did much more damage than one would have expected it to.