Many Christians who’ve stopped really believing now insist that they revere the Bible as a source of ethical advice. The standard atheist reply is given by Sam Harris: "You and I both know that it would take us five minutes to produce a book that offers a more coherent and compassionate morality than the Bible does." Similarly, one may try to insist that the Bible is valuable as a literary work. Then why not revere Lord of the Rings, a vastly superior literary work? And despite the standard criticisms of Tolkien’s morality, Lord of the Rings is at least superior to the Bible as a source of ethics. So why don’t people wear little rings around their neck, instead of crosses? Even Harry Potter is superior to the Bible, both as a work of literary art and as moral philosophy. If I really wanted to be cruel, I would compare the Bible to Jacqueline Carey’s Kushiel series.
"How can you justify buying a $1 million gem-studded laptop," you ask your friend, "when so many people have no laptops at all?" And your friend says, "But think of the employment that this will provide – to the laptop maker, the laptop maker’s advertising agency – and then they’ll buy meals and haircuts – it will stimulate the economy and eventually many people will get their own laptops." But it would be even more efficient to buy 5,000 OLPC laptops, thus providing employment to the OLPC manufacturers and giving out laptops directly.
I’ve touched before on the failure to look for third alternatives. But this is not really motivated stopping. Calling it "motivated stopping" would imply that there was a search carried out in the first place.
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