Malcolm McLean said:
"Mark McIntyre" <ma**********@s pamcop.netwrote in message
news:k1******** *************** *********@4ax.c om...
>On Mon, 13 Aug 2007 21:40:52 +0100, in comp.lang.c , "Malcolm McLean"
<re*******@bti nternet.comwrot e:
>>>"Ben Bacarisse" <be********@bsb .me.ukwrote in message
news:87***** *******@bsb.me. uk...
I am sorry that my report was not clear. I am not reacting to this
topic rationally.
It's surprising how often people react like that. I get similar
accusation s
all the time about 12 Common Atheist Arguments (refuted).
<OT>
What, you mean as opposed to the irrationality of the book itself?
</ot>
As you might expect a lot of atheists are very hostile to my religious
books.
Someone who claims that your Refutations book is irrational need not
necessarily be an atheist. I haven't read it myself, so I am commenting
only generally, but it seems to me that there are many possibilities:
Your book is rational, your critic is an atheist, your critic is wrong;
your book is irrational, your critic is an atheist, your critic is
right; your book is rational, your critic is of another faith, your
critic is wrong; your book is irrational, your critic is of another
faith, your critic is right; your book is rational, your critic is a
Christian, your critic is wrong; or your book is irrational, your
critic is a Christian, and your critic is right.
But these boil down to just two truly distinct possibilities - either
the book is irrational (in which case the criticism is correct) or it
is not (in which case the criticism is incorrect), and the faith or
otherwise of the critic is of no particular relevance.
What is interesting is how similar the response is to Basic
Algorithms. They are quite different subjects, and there is no reason
why someone who agrees with me on Christiamity should see eye to eye
on programming matters.
Indeed - and in fact other Christians might not even agree with you on
Christianity. Or they might. It's a broad church (if I may use that
expression in this context!).
But the things said are almost identical - I
regularly get demands to withdraw the book because it doesn't contain
a definitive proof of God's existence, for instance
Neither does the Bible, but I don't see anyone clamouring for it to be
withdrawn.
(it doesn't claim
to, it refutes 12 Common Atheist Arguments, not the same thing as
proving Christianity to be true).
Right. The book should be judged on its merits. If the refutations are
of poor quality, or are easily refuted themselves, or attack the wrong
arguments (e.g. arguments that are not commonly used by atheists), then
the book is a poor book. That doesn't mean it should be withdrawn,
however. The world needs horrible warnings just as much as it needs
good examples.
In case of Basic Algorithms the
pretext is technical, of course, but I think the basic motive is the
same.
The motive is technical. If your purpose is to illustrate algorithms, I
suggest that you use either pseudocode or a language you know far
better than you know C.
People see a book as something socially unacceptable.
Not in comp.lang.c they don't.
--
Richard Heathfield <http://www.cpax.org.uk >
Email: -www. +rjh@
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"Usenet is a strange place" - dmr 29 July 1999