The Doctrine of Joint Belief

The Doctrine of Joint Belief is the idea that just because a single person holds two different worldviews (e.g. science and religion, Christianity and racism, free market capitalism and universal health care) it follows logically that those two views are compatible. Clay Shirky has written a nice summary of the logical fallacy behind the doctrine [Religion and Science]. His article is effective because he used to believe in The Doctrine of Joint Belief.

Lately, Chris Mooney has been arguing in books and blogs that the so-called "new atheists" are hurting his cause by arguing that science and religion are incompatible. Mostly it's a political argument, and that makes sense because Chris Mooney is interested in policy and politics and not science or philosophy.

On Friday, however, Chris shifted gears and tried to defend accommodationism on logical grounds. This is not his forte [Eugenie Scott Powerfully Makes the Case for Science-Religion Compatibility]. It's the classic defense according to The Doctrine of Joint Belief, explained in this case by Eugenie Scott.



Jerry Coyne exhibits a great deal of patience when he explains, for about the millionth time, why the doctrine is logically absurd [Eugenie Scott and Chris Mooney dissemble about accommodationism].

Isn't it about time for one of the accommodationists to speak up and admit that this argument makes no sense? It's about as logical as saying science and Intelligent Design Creationism are compatible because of Michael Behe.

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