Paul Baird had the idea of turning my recent interactions with fundamentalist atheists into the Chris Bolt Comedy Hour. I do not know how much I will get in royalties, but given the popularity of movies like Napoleon Dynamite even a small percentage will do.
Paul introduces the first act, featuring a fundamentalist atheist who repeatedly insists, “I know nothing.” (Audience laughter.) He claims that he does not know whether or not a book by Darwin exists, and admits that he does not even know whether or not I exist, but wants to talk to me about the book by Darwin anyway. (Audience laughter.)
Chris Bolt comedy hour – https://choosinghats.org/2011/09/fossils-are-real-a-fundamentalist-atheist-shuns-knowledge/
The second act features an agnostic who, similar to our first performer, does not believe he can know anything. At least, he does not think we can know anything through induction. Inductive inferences are just something we have to do just like sleeping or eliminating bodily waste. Since inductive inferences are not justified, and since justification is a necessary component of knowledge, our second act cannot answer a question like, “How do you know that gravity will continue to hold you to the ground tomorrow?” After refusing to respond to my questions and concerns about his position, refusing to ever debate me again, and encouraging others to do the same, he claims that I am “not interested in having an intellectually fruitful discussion!” (Audience laughter.) Something that would add a little flare to this act is Paul coming onto stage after the bit on gravity and greeting our performer with a customary, “What’s up?” (Audience laughter.)
https://choosinghats.org/2011/10/the-humble-suggestion-of-ben-wallis/
Chris Bolt’s comedy hour part two. 🙂
But the final act is surely the best! Paul Baird comes onto stage and pretends to comfort atheists and agnostics around the world by assuring them that presuppositional apologetics fails. Indeed, no atheist need waste his time responding to the presuppositionalists. Paul sets the example with his (currently) 82 posts on the topic. (Audience laughter.) But why does Paul claim that atheists need not be concerned?
Well it’s crystal clear. Presuppositional apologetics cannot prove the existence of the specifically Christian God. Atheists only need to believe in another theistic deity who has revealed himself to us and they will be fine. It’s no problem for atheists to believe in the revelation of a theistic deity, right? So the next time a pesky Christian comes and bothers you with that presuppositional nonsense, just tell him or her that you are immune to it because as an atheist you believe in god. (Drums, cymbal, audience laughter.)
Paul finishes his act by taking a shot at the producer of the show.
Just read Chris Bolts latest screeds.
https://choosinghats.org/2011/10/the-unfortunate-case-of-the-missing-argument/
It takes the audience only a moment to get the punch line. Paul mentions the producer’s name, attributes a “screed” to him, and the audience reads in the first line of the post, “by RazorsKiss on October 3, 2011.” (Audience laughter.) The audience continues to be entertained as they see that the remainder of the post is written in a different style from what the producer uses and the post refers to the producer in the third person throughout.
Goodnight everybody.
The Chris Bolt Comedy Hour would be hilarious except that the actors take its content seriously. That’s not funny, it’s sad.
Meanwhile, in his most recent comment, Paul overlooks my post here – https://choosinghats.org/2011/10/another-round-with-paul-baird-stating-and-defending-the-requested-rebuttal-4/ opting to respond to RK’s post instead, and does not touch on the problems that are raised for his position here – https://choosinghats.org/2011/10/paul-baird-crackers-in-the-pantry-and-scientism/
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