Ah interesting, I took you up wrongly but your statement was a little ambiguous in my defense. Can you explain what you mean about these logical leaps that smart people take but are wrong-headed, sounds quite intriguing, I have a feeling I know what you mean but I can't articulate it properly.
The idea is that people are using the results of a field to justify its axioms.
For example, all of science rests on the assumptions that the world is as it appears (empiricism), there are no supernatural forces, etc. Why do most people buy into these beliefs so strongly even though there is zero evidence for them? The basic reasoning is that empiricism must be correct because we have iPods, therefore 'science' (scientism) is correct, therefore there is no god, etc. (See also: http://store.xkcd.com/xkcd/#Science)
It's a devastating belief system, because the more books these people read the dumber they get. If you don't believe me just read through some of the Reddit comments on r/atheism. Regardless of whether there is or is not a god, it's clear that the modern atheist movement is basically just a fad for dumb people. (Though from a social and political perspective I think it's a good thing.)
The thing is this doesn't just happen in religious debates, it happens virtually everywhere, but most people just don't realize it. It's funny because modernism as an intellectual movement crashed and burned spectacularly over fifty years ago, but most people (including many highly acclaimed scientists) don't even know it yet.
The idea is that people are using the results of a field to justify its axioms.
Interesting observation. You can see why it comes about though. It's not like people are going out of there way to be dumb :) They are fed a bunch of triumphalism too. And people are easily misled. Once science starts providing a lot of answers about the universe and also once it starts giving us comforts and toys it's hard not to extrapolate.
Modern atheism is not just a fad for dumb people. That's unfair. Don't forget how hostile religion was to individual atheists. We are living in a comparatively secular time and atheism is in the air. To be fair, when kids are told about Santa Claus they believe that too. I tell my kid that I believe there is no God and that organized religion is not the best way to spiritually develop yourself. You get dumb people everywhere. Socially it's a _great_ thing in my opinion. One less excuse to blow each other up. Now all we have to do is to dislodge the nation-state concept, that's going to be tricky.
I'm curious. Are you a postmodernist? :) How do you think the modernist project crashed and burned? I think modernism as a coherent ideology was never all that pervasive and also was very lumpy (not evely distributed).
"Don't forget how hostile religion was to individual atheists."
That's one of the reasons why I support the movement, but that doesn't make it correct. I don't think there's anything inherently wrong with atheism. That being said, I think Dawkins is kind of dumb, and unfortunately he's the face of the modern movement and the one that everyone cites.
"How do you think the modernist project crashed and burned?"
The eugenics movement and the holocaust.
"Are you a postmodernist?"
I haven't read enough postmodernist lit to feel comfortable putting myself in that camp, though certainly many of my critiques of modernity are along the same lines.
