[Buddha-l] Prominent Neobuddhist proposes religion based blacklisting for government jobs

[Curt Steinmetz]

First of all, my factual statements about Harris' biography were 
preceded by the phrase "by the way", thus putting them at a safe 
distance from the main thrust of my argument.

Secondly, I was attacking Harris' credentials. I neither maligned his 
character nor impugned his integrity. I was making a purely objective 
claim, namely, that Harris lacks the kind of scientific training that 
would enable him to judge whether or not Francis Collins is capable of 
"thinking like a scientist", to use Harris' own words.

Thirdly, and, by the way, I left out the best parts. But see the 2006 
profile in the Washington Post:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/25/AR2006102501998_pf.html

(tinyurl: http://tinyurl.com/y2yqhh )

Curt

Richard Hayes wrote:
> On Jul 29, 2009, at 10:09 PM, Curt Steinmetz wrote:
>
>   
>> This is not an ad hominem attack. Harris has claimed to possess expert
>> knowledge that allows him to pass judgment on who is and who is not  
>> able
>> to "think like a scientist". Comparing his near complete lack of
>> scientific training to Collins' three plus decades career as a
>> scientific pioneer reveals not just how baseless Harris' contention  
>> is,
>> but just how flimsy his grip on reality is.
>>     
>
> The fact remains, attacking the credibility of a person making an  
> argument rather than addressing the actual issues is precisely what ad  
> hominem argumentation is.
>
> Richard Hayes
> Department of Philosophy
> University of New Mexico
> http://www.unm.edu/~rhayes
> rhayes at unm.edu
>
>
>
>
>
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