Thursday 24 July 2008

The problem with reason

The new atheists have been vocal about the need for "reason" and how the application of reason is all that is required for people to escape the illusion of "religion".

Romand Coles highlights the difficulty and the illusion of appealing to some pure idea of reason above and beyond the influences and sheer messiness of human life.

... our visions and arguments concerning the "reasonable" and "the public" (and for that matter "religion" I would add) are infused with and are significantly and discrepantly shaped by particular histories, doctrines, perceptions, and sensibilities with which we identify - in ways that seem powerfully to elude transparency. (p.246 Beyond Gated Politics)

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