Comments on: I Am Thankful for Eliezer Yudkowsky

By: Robert Johnson

Robert Johnson — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 06:43:48 +0000

awsome article men

By: Cindy P Dennis

Cindy P Dennis — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 04:39:09 +0000

Excellent, entertaining, useful reading, Thanks !!

By: themightypuck

themightypuck — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 21:02:18 +0000

I suppose that’s covered under professional specialization.

By: themightypuck

themightypuck — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 20:59:35 +0000

Don’t forget to thank the local police for helping to provide an environment where you can keep both eyes on the food.

By: M

Mon, 01 Dec 2008 23:32:17 +0000

‘wonderland of freethinkery’? You can’t've been paying attention lately.

By: Freddie

Freddie — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 19:41:42 +0000

Of course, such flippancy damages our ability to enact the only actual project of atheism, the separation of church and state. But of course, the insult isn’t a sad byproduct, it’s the point, and the reason most American atheists are atheists. When atheists fall out of love with self-aggrandizement through ridiculing others, we may actually see a country more consonant with atheism. But, again, self-aggrandizement, not truth or righteousness, is the point, so that’s what remains.

By: Greg N.

Greg N. — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 16:20:28 +0000

I asked all of my kids to say a similar “prayer” at their Thanksgiving tables. So far only a handful have, and the universal response has been stone silence, confusion or parents/grandparents being upset because God wasn’t exclusively thanked.

By: matt

matt — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 14:47:52 +0000

I don’t get your Locke comment. Can you explain it?

By: Michael Drake

Michael Drake — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 14:47:47 +0000

Invisible hands that help are better than lips that pray.

By: Eliezer Yudkowsky

Eliezer Yudkowsky — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 09:51:35 +0000

I thought that in most cases food miles turned out to be relatively insignificant compared with local advantages in energy costs? The greenhouse costs more than the shipping?

By: TheGarbageMan

TheGarbageMan — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 07:18:59 +0000

Isn’t it a bit silly to say that LOCKE stripped us of reverence for God’s providence? Why would you say that? If God provides us the means to flourish and intends us to use them for His glory, then why is gratitude to God problematic? A theist will want to say that God grants us gifts so that we might flourish and abilities and reason in order to put them to use.

There is simply nothing to Eliezer’s point that a theist should concern herself with. In fact, I find him continually sloppy when it comes to matters of philosophy of religion (and philosophy generally, for that matter). If there is a God, then presumably He is even responsible for the Law of Comparative Advantage. Just because He enables us to flourish and then we choose to do so doesn’t mean we owe God any less gratitude (that is, if He exists).

By: manuelg

manuelg — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 06:47:03 +0000

> …without which we would all starve to death…

You are forgetting about tree bark.

By: Gil

Gil — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 06:21:30 +0000

Will, could you clarify that last sentence?

Would you be more grateful if he cared about food miles?