RD Extra: Denying Death

Post your comments on the Dr. Prof.'s presentation here.

That was fascinating, thanks for putting it out there.

I had recently been coming to the realization of worldview being tied to self-esteem and meaning. I've been thinking especially about visceral negative reactions many of us have to certain public figures in the political and religious arenas (for me it's Pat Roberson and Rush Limbaugh, but I have friend at work who gets the same gut-level revulsion from Nancy Pelosi and Al Gore). Your presentation kind of clarified for me that this reaction comes from a visceral perceived threat to our respective worldviews. Also intriguing to me is the idea that your hypothesis itself represents a worldview, or at least a big part of one, and therefore any counter-thesis might represent a challenge that you would, by your reasoning, react with strong negative emotions. The point being that atheism represents a world view that is equally vulnerable to the "death denying" bias as the religious examples that dominated your discussion.

This was a really enlightening episode and helped explain a lot about things I've wondered before like why people are so reluctant to change worldviews in debates. Like I've had debates with other atheists over non-religious worldviews like libertarian atheists who tended to be defensive when their worldview was challenged. Likewise I'm a liberal but I've been told I'm being argumentative in debates. So when someone does tell you you're being argumentative, should you take a step back and examine yourself to see if you are just being defensive of your worldviews? I wonder what worldviews would the doubcasters hosts be defensive of if they were reminded of death?

I think its obvious. Id be defensive of my naturalist/humanist worldview. No shame in admitting this. We're human, weaknesses and all.