Monday, July 16, 2007

Beliefs and efficacy

Norm has replied to my comments about counterfactuals in relation to the motivating powers of religion. He clarifies:

I take the religious motivation to be a real cause, unless and until someone comes up with a powerful reason or piece of evidence to the contrary. But this is not to say that the same function as the ethical teachings of religion can't be fulfilled by a secular morality.

Which means, I think, that we’re on the same page.

Actually, ‘on the same page’ really doesn’t work so well in a web context. Not that it’s anything other than a cringeworthy cliché in a non-web context, of course. Maybe ‘we’re clicking on the same link’?

Oh, that’s awful. It sounds almost sexual, albeit in an extremely boring way. Maybe… no. I think I need to stop digging.

Quick! Go and watch Boris Johnson and/or John Redwood looking less than statesmanlike.

5 comments:

Timmo said...

...we're clicking on the same link...

You should be ashamed of yourself, Tom Freeman.

Tom Freeman said...

Yeah, I probably should. But what can you do?

Incitatus4Congress said...

I'd be happy with a Boris victory for two reasons; a) he's really quite funny, and b) I don't live in London.

anticant said...

A further reason is that he might be a better mayor than Livingstone. He could hardly be worse.

Tom Freeman said...

He is really quite funny, but I think that forcing a load of administrative responsibilities on him would take all the fun out of him. Look at the grumpy old sourpuss it's turned 'cheeky chappy' Ken into.