Who was your David Hume?
• Skeptics & Atheists
Who would you nominate as the most amusing or useful atheist, debunker, clarifier?
Since H.L. Mencken was my young self's first taste of the liberation of laughing at rather than becoming a sour despiser of ignorance and idiocy he'd be my first choice. Martin Gardner in his early debunking books is good natured and readable. But I'm biased. I'd rather read about "The First Knowledgean of Lawsonomy" than another debunking of (cough) psi phenomena.
By the time Demon Haunted World arrived I was too long debunked to have a desire to read about the myths I'd rejected or the intellectual stance I'd adopted decades before. (Besides I had problems with Sagan. I first discovered him, circa 1970, in Junior High before his telegenic mug arrived on nightly TV saying "billions and billions." His initial claim to, er, fame was translating a Russian scientist's book. And with his statistics about life on other planets I for many years thought he was on the UFO nuts side.)
This isn't meant to involve simple notions of right and wrong. Who influenced you, amused you? If you were caught up in god-nonsense or were simply unthinking who awoke you from your slumbers?
Comments
Posted by: Father Dan | December 27, 2003 9:31 PM
Posted by: Father Dan | December 27, 2003 9:32 PM
Posted by: Eli Sarver | December 28, 2003 9:52 AM
Posted by: Terri | December 29, 2003 12:35 AM