IRRATIONALITY
Reader comment on item: The Bible's Role in American Support for Israel
in response to reader comment: Bart....

Submitted by Bart Willruth (United States), Sep 8, 2006 at 08:44

Donvan,

It is tempting to give back the sarcasm that you have offered to me in your Christlike attitude. However, I will at least give you a response.

No I am not necessarily smarter than you. I am no smarter today than I was in the past when I allowed faith to take the place of reason in my mind. Some of the most intelligent people I know believe unsubstantiated premises based only on the word of other men. We all have the capacity for rationality. To require evidence for claims, extraordinary evidence for extraordinary claims, to make non-contradictory identification, and to extrapolate reasonable premises logically is a choice to be rational. To short circuit this process and allow the insertion of notions which contradict our hierarchy of knowledge is the nature of faith. Faith, as an epistemological method of gaining knowledge, is irrational. It is in this sense only that I used the term.

It is not irrational to love another person, so long as that person actually exists. To value that person above all others is not irrational, providing that the person is deserving.

You say, "we humans are irrational." Well....that is your choice to make. If you wish to believe something to be true in the absence of evidence, or to maintain its truth in spite of evidence to the contrary, it is your right. But it is irrational.

Best wishes in your quest for truth,

Bart

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