I don’t consider myself religious, and have some issues with religiosity of my own. I do, though try my best to follow the teachings of Jesus, so I’m not sure if I fall into Richard D’s categorisation or not.
More over, before I’ve even reached the bottom of Page 1, a litany of the worst of religion is outlined to attempt to resonate with John Lennon’s IMAGINE line, “and no religion too”. It’s disappointing that Dawkins rather lazily includes references to Northern Ireland’s “troubles”, along with other extreme and heretical examples of Christianity and the violence of other religions.
I’m metaphorically folding my arms and saying
you’ve got to do better than this, Richard.
5 comments:
That part of his views is like Omid Djalili's stand-up routine:
"WE MUST DESTROY THE WEST!!!" - shouts the nutter with a hook for a hand.
There is the voice of the East.
"We believe in an entire white society, blah blah blah" - says the leader of Koo-klux-klan.
There is the voice of the West.
:D
i'm so glad that you're doing this! please keep going! i have no idea how to defend against his type of attacks, and i confess, that i just shut down. i think it'll be easier for me to understand what dawkins is trying to safe through your buffer. thankyou!
Dawkins is the one who is delusional, employing false logic (improbability of God, god or gods), and OT violence as a disqualifier. One of Amazon's negative reviewers summarized it as,
"I started reading this thinking that I might read a logical, skeptical, nay scientific critique of religion. Instead, I found something right out of a Boston Globe editorial on a bad day: strings of perjorative adjectives pretending to be argument, bald assertion pretending to be evidence, an incredibly arrogant attitude, and a stance of moral equivalence incapable of distingushing between the possible strengths and weaknesses of different religions, including the militant athiesm Dawakins advocates. This is not academic analysis; it is bad journalism."
I feel that the large number of copies sold is due to the books controversial aspects, and that at least as many copies were sold to Dawkins dissidents, I being one, as to advocates.
"More over, before I’ve even reached the bottom of Page 1, a litany of the worse of religion is outlined to attempt to resonate with John Lennon’s IMAGINE line, “and no religion too”."
S/B 'worst' (superlative), rather than 'worse' (comparative).
Cheers
Thnaks for the thoughts, Aartilla & Lee.
I'll try and keep going!
Grace & peace
J
It's funny isn't it...because you almost really want him to come out with this earth shatteringly good argument for why we shouldn't believe in God...and instead he just says 'it's outside the realms of probability'.
I just got increasingly saddened by his willingness to go to extremes to prove his point.
I guess we have to be careful not to respond likewise by pointing out the 'extreme' bad cases of atheism, like Stalin etc.
We watched 'Everything is Spiritual' last night...well worth it, although I'm sure Dawkins would pick holes in Bell's presentation. But the point is exactly what Bell says: if you're looking to be cynical you'll find plenty to be cynical about.
Keep going Johnny!
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