Five Major Signs Your Brain is Made Stupid By Faith
This Is Your Brain on Drugs was a large-scale US anti-narcotics campaign by Partnership for a Drug-Free America (PDFA) launched in 1987, that used two televised public service announcements (PSAs) and a related poster campaign. Here's the original 30 second commercial:
I want people to consider the drug metaphor for faith, taking our cue from Karl Marx who described religious faith as the opiate of the people, as I argued previously. When you watch the commercial hear him say "This is your brain on faith." That's what I think. Here then are five major signs your brain is made stupid by faith:
1) When faith makes you denigrate or deny science.
2) When faith makes you think you don't need evidence to believe. (Just think Alvin Plantinga).
3) When faith makes you deny the need to think exclusively in terms of the objective probabilities.
4) When faith makes you deny the need for sufficient objective evidence in favor of private subjective experiences.
5) When faith makes you think it has an equal or better method at arriving at the truth than scientifically based reasoning. Any questions?
I want people to consider the drug metaphor for faith, taking our cue from Karl Marx who described religious faith as the opiate of the people, as I argued previously. When you watch the commercial hear him say "This is your brain on faith." That's what I think. Here then are five major signs your brain is made stupid by faith:
1) When faith makes you denigrate or deny science.
2) When faith makes you think you don't need evidence to believe. (Just think Alvin Plantinga).
3) When faith makes you deny the need to think exclusively in terms of the objective probabilities.
4) When faith makes you deny the need for sufficient objective evidence in favor of private subjective experiences.
5) When faith makes you think it has an equal or better method at arriving at the truth than scientifically based reasoning. Any questions?