This title should be amended to "Letters based on feelings induced by biochemical reactions that result in responses classified by human culture as 'love'" in order to be scientifically accurate.
Well, kudos to him for having a good sense of humor about it. On the other hand, I guess it's his way of poking fun at the people he believes to be morons (I would assume that to be anyone that disagrees with what he believes, but I'd be setting myself up as being one of those morons if I were wrong). So, both the people who write these letters and Dawkins himself are a bunch of assholes.
I did enjoy listening to him read them with that proper english accent of his though. How about we hear some real love letters to Dawkins. Those would likely be interesting as well.
"Dear Dr. Dawkins, you opened my eyes to the awesome world of being a meat bag. Now I'm learning to loathe other meat bags as you do. I adore you."
Ehh, I don't know...
He has debated people with supposedly well-reasoned counterpoints, so I don't think he's too worried about it. Shooting fish in a barrel is just fun.I doubt he would read a well-reasoned reply to his nonsense. Fundamentalists... That is shooting fish in a barrel.
I find it rather amusing when Imperial Philosopher, Types with Fingers, and others suggest that physicalists must think and feel like some sort of meat machine, rather than in the same way as nonphysicalists. It's endearingly childish.
~~ Paul
I sent Dickie Dawkins quite a bit of stuff on NDE's. He just ignored me, naturally. I was very polite, so he could at least have given me a quick, thanks but no thanks, it doesn't fit my worldview. Or he could have been rude, I wouldn't have minded a ..."Bugger off you deluded idiot, that can't happen" ..which I have had from one or two others. Doesn't bother me, it's his loss because he is largely ignorant of good evidence that ought to change his mind (although he is aware of the subject and did have a go in Persinger's God helmet)
So physicalists are politicians? That explains a lot.
And there i deleted it. Damn you are too quick. In some sort of way they are. Philosophy is always about talking a lot. Additionaly to that, its a easy way to irritate other people. But the definition of those words is propably the core of the problem. Atleast thats what i imagine.
Which... actually makes this video even more painful, because he chose to read AND respond to THESE letters while ignoring genuine messages such as yours.
Although I suspect he probably had someone else go through his inbox and pull out the ones that were good candidates for the video. I wouldn't be surprised if he was reading many of those for the first time on camera.
I find it rather amusing when Imperial Philosopher, Types with Fingers, and others suggest that physicalists must think and feel like some sort of meat machine, rather than in the same way as nonphysicalists. It's endearingly childish.
~~ Paul
We should create our own language. Skeptikonese.
Yes, poking fun at "fundies" isn't "endearingly childish" at all, I guess.He has debated people with supposedly well-reasoned counterpoints, so I don't think he's too worried about it. Shooting fish in a barrel is just fun.
~~ Paul
They may indeed think they are "meat machines" when they are thinking about the way the world is. I doubt most of them feel that they are meat machines any more than you do.Thank you, it's nice to be noticed!
However, I'm suggesting not that physicalists think and feel like meat machines, I'm suggesting they think and feel they ARE meat machines.