Posted on 03/05/2015 11:56:59 AM PST by wagglebee
DUBLIN, March 4, 2015 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The government needs to protect children from the religious views of their own parents, according to popular atheist writer Richard Dawkins.
His speaking partner went further, comparing parents instilling their religious views in their children could be compared to denying them medical treatment.
In an interview prior to a speech at Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland, last week, Dawkins told the media that parents have too much influence in their children's education, especially when it comes to religion.
“There is a balancing act and you have to balance the rights of parents and the rights of children, and I think the balance has swung too far towards parents,” Dawkins told the Irish Times. “Children do need to be protected so that they can have a proper education and not be indoctrinated in whatever religion their parents happen to have been brought up in.”
He added, "You have to write off those people" who value the Bible over science.
Dawkins was in Ireland, along with physicist Lawrence Krauss as part of a tour promoting Arizona State University’s Origins Project. He also came to lend his support to the activist group Atheist Ireland, which is promoting a campaign to remove religious education from schools.
Krauss concurred with Dawkins, saying the state must restrict parental rights as part of its mandate to "properly educate its children."
“That means parents have a limited, it seems to be, limited rights [sic] in determining what the curriculum is,” Krauss said.
“And parents of course have concerns and a say, but they don’t have the right to shield their children from knowledge,” Krauss said. “That’s not a right any more than they have the right to shield their children from health care or medicine. And those parents that do that are often tried and imprisoned when they refuse to allow their children to get blood transfusions or whatever is necessary for their health. And this is necessary for their mental health.”
Dawkins became a popular exponent of atheism after publishing his 2006 book The God Delusion, in which he argued that religious faith qualifies as a delusion. He considers religious belief one of the world’s great evils and coined the term "faith-sufferer" to describe religious believers of any creed in a 1991 essay titled, "Viruses of the Mind."
In his talk at Trinity College, Dawkins affirmed his belief in “Darwinian” evolution and denied the theory of Intelligent Design. Yet even some skeptics are challenging his ideas.
In his book The Grand Design, Stephen Hawking wrote, “The laws of nature form a system that is extremely fine-tuned, and very little in physical law can be altered without destroying the possibility of the development of life as we know it. Were it not for a series of startling coincidences in the precise details of physical law, it seems, humans and similar life-forms would never have come into being.”
“We have arrived at the point,” said physicist Stephen M. Barr, “where we see that science can by no means explain away the rich design of nature and its laws. Science has only shown that design to be more magnificent than anyone had ever dreamt. Therefore, the Cosmic Design Argument for the existence of God still stands. Indeed, it is stronger than ever before.”
Straw man; our folly was in thinking we could just “vote” and then turn it over to the political class rather than being personally involved every day in what we could do in matters of import to our neighbors, even if only to pray. The old slogan: think globally, act locally.
The “best man” is still going to be a sinner unless Jesus Christ is on the ballot. The fallacy is in thinking that anyone can win a game that is robbed of grace.
I just got a long lecture on justice....:)
I like to play “modern music” to some, seemingly thoughtful atheists.
Songs that they know and recognize but may not have taken the time to consider their meaning.
My ex-girlfriend, was a full blown liberal, atheist.
When I was able to get her to thoughtfully listen to the words of any number of songs that she loved, her head exploded.
Anger, denial etc...It was basically “cognitive dissonance” on full display. And then I asked her if she knew the meaning of “cognitive dissonance”. That didn’t go over very well.
Songs like;
I alone, Live.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FNrQOUtXYOo
and
Peter Gabriel
Solsbury Hill
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GimLuOUVkxg
She loved the songs and the words and would continue to deny the message or meaning.
This, IMHO is what we are up against.
Willful ignorance.
The last presidential election when there was a clear choice between two opposing ideals was 1984.
My hunch is the reason that Democrats dislike the Bushes, McCain, Romney and others so much is the Democrats realize that these quasi-Republicans SHOULD be Democrats.
Since the days of Lenin the left has understood how much easier things are if there is only one party and they are angry that the leftist Republicans won't join them.
Truth be told, I don't think the term RINO means what it did a decade ago. Today, the Republicans in name only are the actual conservatives and there are very few of them left at the national level.
We will see an inquisition soon. Already, if you disagree with global warming it can cost your job, and sometimes your career. There have been open talks of labeling disagreement with “settled” science a crime against humanity, and liable to prosecution.
And who protects us from Richard Dawkins? And the State?
If there were nobody to protect Richard Dawkins from me I’d disappear him. Why? Because I’m a father protecting my children from evil, that’s why.
And who protects us from Richard Dawkins? And the State?
You.
Now he forgets all that and becomes an anti-Theistic moral crusader.
They're all hypocrites and parasites.
Postmodernists believe that the idea of God ought to be eliminated from Western culture to destroy the power of the churches.
Secular humanists believe that the idea of God ought to be eliminated from Western culture in order to make it easier to have a pluralistic relativistic morality that accepts alternate and experimental lifestyles.
They are. I once told a coworker (who hated Christianity) that he had better be thankful that my ancestors became Christian, because the Old Viking gods were not like the Marvel movie.
” Straw man; our folly was in thinking we could just “vote” and then turn it over to the political class rather than being personally involved every day in what we could do in matters of import to our neighbors, even if only to pray. “
No argument from me at all!
Athiests/leftists/collectivists/fascists/socialists/communists.
All feathers from the same bird.
” The last presidential election when there was a clear choice between two opposing ideals was 1984.”
I absolutely agree with you.
“Since the days of Lenin the left has understood how much easier things are if there is only one party and they are angry that the leftist Republicans won’t join them.”
Once again, I am in complete agreement.
” Today, the Republicans in name only are the actual conservatives and there are very few of them left at the national level. “
I figure between 6 and 10.
properly educate "its" children.....tallk about dangrous...this is it!!!
And half of them look iffy on any given day.
That’s about right : )
[ Well Dawkins is obviously a man who makes either a good Nazi or a good Communist. ]
In essence he is the ultimate “useful idiot”. The best useful idiots are those who are smart in the book yet dumb in the ways of the the world. They inspire confidence in masses because they are so book smart, yet are so dumb when it comes to common sense so that they are easily manipulated by the party chiefs.
Not sure what this has to do with pride. Pride and humility have to do with HOW a gift is exercised, not what the gift is.
I agree, but to KNOW something to be TRUE and express that confidence is no longer seen as being humble.
To stand by your belief is then seen as pride.
Pride is seen as being close-minded and in many cases rejected as a result.
I’ve been on this for a long time.
The left and the atheists are on a mission to force the rest of us to embrace uncertainty as the way things are.
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