Holy crap, I somehow missed the fact that Ross Douthat has a book out arguing for religion on the grounds of reason & science. It's almost enough to shock the militant atheist in me back to life. www.theatlantic.com/books/archiv... - ThreadSky

volts.wtf • 19 days ago

Holy crap, I somehow missed the fact that Ross Douthat has a book out arguing for religion on the grounds of reason & science. It's almost enough to shock the militant atheist in me back to life.

https://www.theatlantic.com/books/archive/2025/02/how-ross-douthats-proselytizing-falls-short/681842/

Comments

williamchatnoir.bsky.social•19 days ago

Why can’t these weirdos just enjoy their faith and be done with it?

jalixe.bsky.social•19 days ago

Creates a bad community that no one wants to partake in, so they end up wanting to enforce it onto others (so that they can kick them out of it later)

mbuuck.bsky.social•19 days ago

@volts.wtf as you are someone who writes about epistemology, you may enjoy his bonkers argument that the fact that science works is evidence that God exists

volts.wtf•19 days ago

.................. what

mbuuck.bsky.social•19 days ago

Isn't it just a marvelous coincidence that we appear to be capable of understanding the world around us, when that doesn't necessarily have to be the case? Clearly God must have made that happen.

volts.wtf•19 days ago

The "I don't get it" to "God must have done it" pipeline is undefeated ...

brianbuchbinder.bsky.social•19 days ago

If you need to fill gaps, your local hardware store has Spackle™ aplenty. At least it's real

mbuuck.bsky.social•19 days ago

Haven't read the book, but when he was on Derek Thompson's podcast his argument seemed to boil down to "ok, but it sure looks like God should exist so..."

lipsynclullaby.bsky.social•19 days ago

Thanks. The article is paywalled, but this must be the "thesis" of the book because how do you square rational belief with belief in the unfalsifiable supernatural?

robotpirateninja.bsky.social•19 days ago

Hand waving all the way down.

katekilla.bsky.social•19 days ago

He's such a one-trick pony. I will never, ever forgive him for quoting from (and not crediting) a poem my former husband wrote about my pregnancy with our son in a column about why he opposes abortion rights.

backtrackvt.bsky.social•18 days ago

I don’t understand how and why Douthat has a platform. His opinions are crap, he never says anything of value and he is a complete apologist for oppressive Christian dogma.

seattletone.com•19 days ago

As a Catholic, I have always been largely uninterested in the insistence that we must rationalize the existence of God.

Aside from it being impossible and the string of logic being circular, my more personal reason is the mystery of faith is one of the most beautiful things Catholics experience.

johncastiglione.bsky.social•19 days ago

In dark times like this, I try to remember that Jesus reserved his most vicious loathing for the religion-fakers and the bullshit piety peddlers like Douthat, Dreher, and their entire ilk.

opinionsvary.bsky.social•18 days ago

I need a long thread on this plz

boothlib.bsky.social•19 days ago

Apparently 2000 years of mediocre white dudes saying pretty much the same thing wasn’t enough. Get that bag, Ross! Fml

erikonymous.bsky.social•19 days ago

A thousand works of apologetics (as I assume that's what Douthat is attempting?) all break apart upon impact with Sagan's skeptic axiom: extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.

leftofcenterus.bsky.social•19 days ago

Why liberals and progressives keep pretending like that doufus ever has good ideas. He does not.

themalaiseoftech.bsky.social•19 days ago

Reading an entire book…written by Ross Douthat….on religion.

I would sooner seal myself inside of a contractor bag filled with a entire neighborhood’s weekly collection of dog waste.

eyegah.bsky.social•19 days ago

I thank for George Packer pointing out the obvious: religious people believe because it true. I was raised in church, I tried so hard get the feels, I felt horribly guilty that I couldn’t make myself believe, and my mental health dramatically improved when I set it down and walked away.

Comments

Posting Rules

Reply