Key atheist argument is a shell game, philosopher says

I see that a number of people were interested in ”The teacher, the kids, and the atheist lobby“ (= what a Canadian high school philosophy teacher says to students about the recent atheist lobby).

Well, then, you might also be interested in a friend’s comment on the key argument, “God’s existence is improbable.” David Rice III writes,

If God's existence is improbable then it won't do to say that theistic explanations are impossible, they would also be improbable by extension and hence possible. But if theistic explanations are impossible then the existence of God is also impossible. It's a shell game.

I replied,

One characteristic of the current malaise is that people like Dawkins are so seldom called on these obvious points. As long as a guy is bashing religion (especially the Christian one), it doesn’t seem to matter what fool thing he says.

In fairness, the same fate befell the Dalai Lama. He was invited to address a neuroscience conference a couple of years ago, and you should have HEARD the ignorant remarks, by supposedly intelligent people who thought they were being clever. (Fortunately, the conference didn’t buckle, and he did give the address. But so many administrators, faced with these problems, seem to be wearing a “Where should I go to surrender?” sign on their backs.)

Mario Beauregard and I talk about the Dalai Lama and the neuroscience conference in The Spiritual Brain