The God Delusion (Headsup: Richard Dawkins on BookTV/C-Span2 Nov 11/12)

BookTV (C-Span2 weekends) ^ | 11-11-06 | BookTV staff

[VOA]

Here is a "headsup"; set video recorder as needed):

The God Delusion
Richard Dawkins

On Saturday, November 11 at 10:00 pm (EASTERN) and
Sunday, November 12 at 7:00 pm (EASTERN)
(Note: Program start times are approximate and all times are Eastern.)

Description: From Randolph-Macon Woman's College in Lynchburg,
Virginia, Richard Dawkins argues that there is no rational or
moral reason to believe in God or any other supernatural
higher power. He says that because atheists are discriminated
against in the United States they tend not to be vocal about
their views, even though collectively they could be an influential
political and social force. Professor Dawkins also reads selections
from his new book, talks about his love for science, and answers
questions from the Randolph-Macon audience.

[exhaustguy]

He still gets to go home to Lalla Ward (Romana in Doctor Who) who was a very pretty lady in the 1980s (I had a youthful crush on her).

I wish C.S. Lewis was still around to deal with tripe that Dawkins is spilling. It is one thing to be an atheist (what a person believes is his own business), but to attack religion in the way that he does gives evolutionists a bad name. I believe that you can be a Christian and still accept the scientific evidence of adaptation and mutation. You can't get around the fact that humans are an order of magnitude different than chimps with which they share 98%+ genes.

I think it makes as much sense for a scientist to write about faith as it does a pastor to write about science.

[Al Simmons]

Agree completely.

[Borges]

He actually dissects Aquinas' proofs quite well in this book.

[Northern Yankee]

So how does explain the order of the Universe, or daily life?

[Borges]

Natural selection ensures that things settle into a stable pattern. And the 'Anthropic Principle', which claims that since Earth is so uniquely suited to human life it must have been by design since no other known planets are....actually suggests the opposite. With the universe at about 100 billion billion planets it is statistically probable that one of those would be in the 'Goldilocks Zone' (hospitable to life) throughout its entire orbit....

[Northern Yankee]

But as you see order take place not only of the earth, but in daily life, it makes great sense that there is some higher being that is in charge.

If it is indeed by design, albeit anthropic, what determied the design?

How do we know what design is?

Design implies intent, does it not?

Blessings...

[Borges]

Well the question is whether there is a designer in the first place not whether there is intent on their part.

[Northern Yankee]

But if you read Aquinas's Summa Theologica (Which I have just spent reading a few weeks back.) you understand that intent has everything to do with his argument that supports the existence of God, and his designing the Universe.

[Northern Yankee]

Ping!

[Melas]

Why would anyone care about what South Park did to them? That's only humiliating if you care what they're saying about you in the trailer park.

[Melas]

I'll never fully understand why believers feel the need to defend the existence of God. I know God exists, and my human inability to prove his existence amounts to basically nothing. If more Christians were worried about their own walk with God, and less about arguing with atheists, we'd all be better off. Of all the conversions I've seen, including my own, not one came about because a Christian had a convincing argument.

[Northern Yankee]

Reading Aquinas's Summa Theologica is a pleasure. Does it affect my faith? Perhaps not, but it does provide some solid theological thoughts for the existence of God.

It's ok to be educated.

I am not so concerned about arguing with atheists. Perhaps to give them food for thought is not such a bad thing, no?

After all what was the point of Christ coming to earth if not to convert? Isn't that what we are called to do? Remember the parable of those who hid their light under the basket? What good is the light if you keep it hidden?

Blessings to you.