« It's A 'Holy Month' - Time To Riot (Updated) | Main | German Interior Minister: 'Opera Company's Decision To Cancel Idomeneo Is Crazy' »
September 27, 2006
BBC interviews Richard Dawkins about 'The God Delusion'
Here's something a little different:
Richard Dawkins has long trumpeted the rationale of science. Now, at 65, he has finally marshalled a lifetime's arguments against believing in God:
If this video doesn't help those of us who believe in God, realize the importance of not rolling over to the invasion of ssecularism and modernism that has left a void of faith in a West under attack by Islamists, and falling victim to them, nothing will. There really are so many people like Dawkins "out there".
From Economist.com on Richard Dawkins:
... "THE GOD DELUSION" is an irreverent book. The author, Richard Dawkins, accuses Jesus of having "dodgy family values". And don't get him started on the God of the Old Testament, "a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sado-masochistic, capriciously malevolent bully".More here.... Mr Dawkins is an atheist, an evolutionary biologist and an eloquent communicator about science, three passions that have allowed him to construct a particularly comprehensive case against religion. Everyone should read it. Atheists will love Mr Dawkins's incisive logic and rapier wit and theists will find few better tests of the robustness of their faith. Even agnostics, who claim to have no opinion on God, may be persuaded that their position is an untenable waffle.
... Mr Dawkins wants to subvert the mode of transmission between parent and child. He calls a religious upbringing a form of indoctrination and equates it to child abuse. He wants to encourage a change in the Zeitgeist, so that when people hear the words "a Catholic child", or "a Muslim child", they will wince, and ask how a child could already have formed independent opinions on transubstantiation or jihad.
... His second and related plan is to energise atheists, whom he regards as being in the same situation as homosexuals were 50 years ago: stigmatised and unelectable to public office (in America, at least). Mr Dawkins dreams of a day when atheists are as well organised and influential as Christian conservatives have become. If nothing else, his book should help bring the atheists out of the closet.
Related - message of the day, relative to the decline of faith in western societies:
A Europe that cannot understand its own religion, except as a form of subjective irrationalism, cannot possibly engage another. A Christianity that voluntarily recuses itself from reason cannot sustain a belief in the goodness of its convictions, to say nothing of its truth. A West that abandons a critical dialogue between faith and rational inquiry ceases to be the West. It becomes, in a peculiar way, guilty of the same errors Benedict accuses Islam of making. This is the pope's teaching, and it requires no apology. Notice that he offers none.
Hat tip - The WebElf Report
Tags:
Posted by Richard at September 27, 2006 10:40 PM
Comments
God is a "capriciously malevolent bully"? Dawkins is just begging for one of the "bad" cabins for his eternal vacation by the lake of fire.
I've never understood why they have to taunt. If someone has a different opinion than me, then why can't he just argue his case? Why the attempts to be cruel? I say attempts because neither God nor I are diminished by Dawkins' nastiness. Only Dawkins is. Let's see him disrespect Allah. What's that Richard? Not interested?
One odd thing though. He mentions "atheists, whom he regards as being in the same situation as homosexuals were 50 years ago" What's he mean by that? They meeting in bathhouses and the backs of seedy movie theaters?
Posted by: lumberjack at September 27, 2006 11:33 PM
@lumberjack
If you had any knowledge of the old testament, Christian that you are, you would realise Dawkins description of the Judeo-Christian God is actually correct. Have you not read of the various mass killings in the Bible commanded by God, or God telling Abraham to kill his Son, but retracting the command at the last moment. God's pretty loving isn't he! Dawkins attack is on religion as a whole, but is focused more on Christianity mostly because he is trying to cater to his target market - The Western World. Dawkins has "attacked" "Allah" numerous times. Furthermore Dawkins does argue his case, and argues it well, have you even bothered to read any of his books - probably not, considering you possess at best a rudimentary knowledge of your own holy book. Finally, Atheists in America are socially looked down upon - read that line in context! Then again, you obviously can't read the Bible in context either... You *are* diminished by your rash replying!
Posted by: Nick at June 9, 2007 11:11 PM
Nick, you're making this sort of personal.
And I can see from your comments, and those of lumberjack, that the old axiom that different people can look at the same facts and derive polar opposite conclusions is alive and well...
Both of you have apparently arrived at conclusions that fit personal world views, and while I respect both of your opinions, I can't help but see a bit more expertise on your part in regard to Dawkins, but also a bit more of a "forced fit" in your conclusions. I'm not criticizing you for it, merely stating my observation, right or wrong.
As for Dawson's fervent atheism, most of us have at one time or another in our lives, been there - done that - got the t-shirt and the class ring. I think we all live in different levels of spiritual maturity, and some just take longer than others. Interestingly, there's a hell of a lot to be said for "fox hole" conversions, and I can speak from experience that there does often come a time in one's life, atheists included, that faith finally peeks its head through that final curtain just in time for one to "see the light."
You may disagree, but my guess is that Dawson's working awfully hard to dispute that which he seeks ....
Posted by: Abdul at June 9, 2007 11:42 PM
Home