We’re back for the second installment with James Lindsay, discussing his new book, Everybody Is Wrong About God. The book can be purchased here: http://www.amazon.com/Everybody-Is-Wrong-About-God/dp/1634310365
Part 2 starts with a question on whether or not atheist vs theist debates should be a thing of the past, in light of James’ observations on the nature of god. Find out what James has to say on that!
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Thomas,
There is a lot more to the Yale story than just some students yelling at a prof. Have a listen to Cognitive Dissonance episode 262 with Eli Bosnick. The prof was not interested in a conversation as well (he sent out emails that could not be replied to, shut down office hours, refused to talk to students in or out of class and literally ran away from them when they tried to engage him on the matter). All this is cover in the CogDis episode. I agree that some values like opposing racism and black face are values that are held as sacred by the students engaging with the prof, but his support of racism and black face is not unproblematic. Especially in light of the original party asking that “We finish the job that Katrina started” – this could be analogous to “finishing the job that the National Socialists in Germany started”.
Justin.
Great points, Justin. I think it’s a shame that a lot of the discussion about the concerns of the Yale students gets shut down without any of their points being engaged with, and the prof’s behavior is a good example of that.
There are huge racial issues that need to be dealt with on the campus, and having a Master of a House reject the contents of an email that amounted to nothing more than: “If you think your costume might be racist, consider the harm it might cause and think about whether it’d be worth changing your costume choice”. The point of his position was to make the students feel safe (not as a professor, but that’s his duties as a Master of a House) and telling them that they disagree with any official condemnation of racism, no matter how uncontroversially written, is not a good thing at all.