Is logic over-rated? (homosexual, choice, evolution, atheist, faith)

[Phasmid]

A lot of atheists put their faith in logic, but isn't that a bit... illogical?

How many times have you watched CSI and, using your logic, thought, "Ah-ha! It was that Steevenson guy!" only to find out, "What? It was the victim's transexual, one-legged, homosexual bodyguard!? I didn't see that one comming!"?

And you can watch pretty much any Star Trek episode and the Vulcan's logic gets trumped by the Human concept of, "gut".

So, why do atheists put so much stock in logic?

[Willamena]

Ahh, television, the epitome of logic and rationality.

[Phasmid]

Originally Posted by Willamena

Ahh, television, the epitome of logic and rationality.

Reality isn't much more logical.

[crystalonyx]

Everything has its place, but I would say if anything, logic is used too little, and emotion too much in this world.

[Willamena]

Originally Posted by Phasmid

Reality isn't much more logical.

It can be.

[ChristineES]

Maybe people need a mix of logic and rhetoric. Look how the mix of Captain Kirk (rhetoric) and Mr. Spock (logic) always worked well together. They needed each other so I assume that logic needs rhetoric and rhetoric needs logic. (I hope I haven't confused anyone).

[Smoke]

Originally Posted by Phasmid

A lot of atheists put their faith in logic, but isn't that a bit... illogical?

How many times have you watched CSI and, using your logic, thought, "Ah-ha! It was that Steevenson guy!" only to find out, "What? It was the victim's transexual, one-legged, homosexual bodyguard!? I didn't see that one comming!"?

And you can watch pretty much any Star Trek episode and the Vulcan's logic gets trumped by the Human concept of, "gut".

So, why do atheists put so much stock in logic?

There's no problem with logic. The problem is that either people are being illogical when they think they're being logical or they don't have enough information to make a reasoned choice. I suspect that when you guess the wrong person on CSI, both of those are at work.

[Smoke]

Originally Posted by ChristineES

Maybe people need a mix of logic and rhetoric. Look how the mix of Captain Kirk (rhetoric) and Mr. Spock (logic) always worked well together. They needed each other so I assume that logic needs rhetoric and rhetoric needs logic. (I hope I haven't confused anyone).

Yeah, you definitely need both. Logic isn't the tool for every job.

[Sunstone]

Logic is a great way to check one's hunches. The process by which one arrives at those hunches is seldom logical. But logic remains the best way to check them for veracity.

[Alex_G]

Originally Posted by Phasmid

A lot of atheists put their faith in logic, but isn't that a bit... illogical?

How many times have you watched CSI and, using your logic, thought, "Ah-ha! It was that Steevenson guy!" only to find out, "What? It was the victim's transexual, one-legged, homosexual bodyguard!? I didn't see that one comming!"?

And you can watch pretty much any Star Trek episode and the Vulcan's logic gets trumped by the Human concept of, "gut".

So, why do atheists put so much stock in logic?

Logic is so acclaimed because it has yielded so many results. All the technology in the world from calculators to space expaditions for example. If this were not the case im sure we'd have dumped it years ago :P

But realistically logic is a wide and complex piece of our conciousness. It can be in many different forms like mathamatical logic, philosophical logic etc, all depending on its rules and what it can be applied to. It can also be subjective to a degree depending on the laws that govern it in the individual (biases etc). Im not sure about the mechanism of how we developed such a thing, nor why it is solely enhanced in humans (i will leave that to another thread), but it does seem to be a mode of prediction based off some kind of stimulous/response or event/consequence learning. Just another step in our social and mental evolution

appologies for the focused posts, i have this 'keenness' for thought in my post exam time (now :P) witch seemes to be loitering, so im venting it off here