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The New Atheists: Researchers Crusade against American Fundamentalists (EuroPress Alert)
Der Spiegel Online ^ | October 26, 2006 | Jörg Blech

Posted on 10/28/2006 8:46:36 PM PDT by Jacob Kell

In the United States, atheists are becoming an ostracized minority. But now evolutionary biologists are trying to turn the tables: According to their argument, religion is the source of evil. Morals and selflessness are not God-given - they are the result of evolution.

When Richard Dawkins, a zoologist at Oxford University, steps up to the altar he seems visibly pleased to see the pews in the church fully occupied. In the best Queen's English, he reads from his book: "The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully."

(Excerpt) Read more at spiegel.de ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Miscellaneous; News/Current Events; Philosophy
KEYWORDS: atheism; biologist; christophobia; evolution; misotheism; religion; richarddawkins; theocracy; theophobia
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To: Jacob Kell; betty boop; Alamo-Girl; cornelis; .30Carbine; Whosoever
[ Is it me, or does the article have a anti-religious / pro-evolution bias? ]

LoL.... Duuuugh.. I heard that...

161 posted on 10/29/2006 2:40:11 PM PST by hosepipe (CAUTION: This propaganda is laced with hyperbole.)
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To: hosepipe

Pointing at tagline


162 posted on 10/29/2006 2:41:29 PM PST by Tench_Coxe (Go to the parody on my profile.)
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To: WildHorseCrash
In case you come back while I am gone with some UNIFORMED
comment on Christianity My next post to you would be.
"See tag line and have a nice day."
163 posted on 10/29/2006 2:42:31 PM PST by WKB (I Refuse To Have A Battle Of Wits With An Unarmed Person.)
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To: Balding_Eagle
Nothing like a 'personal attack' (it wasn't directed at one person, but rather a whole group of people) when you've been out-rationalized.

LOL... It wasn't a personal attack on a group of people, I was referring to Christians, i.e., more than one Christian. And I have heard more than one Christian express this idea for this reason. And if you think I've been "out-rationalized," you are a fool. (Now, THAT'S a personal attack.)

164 posted on 10/29/2006 2:45:21 PM PST by WildHorseCrash
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To: WKB
Bless your heart I hope you find The Truth one day.

LOL... Whatever. If it makes you feel better, feel free...

165 posted on 10/29/2006 2:45:27 PM PST by WildHorseCrash
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To: muawiyah
Just walk on by. I don't need a keeper.

Well, good for you.

166 posted on 10/29/2006 2:46:02 PM PST by WildHorseCrash
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To: JCEccles
The countries that have the cleanest and most healthful environments tend to be the countries with Judeo-Christian histories and backgrounds. Want to find total disasters? Visit the officially atheist former Soviet Bloc countries.

The former Soviet Bloc countries are all countries with Judeo-Christian histories and background. That they ruined their environments has everything to do with the fact that they adopted communism, not that communism was atheistic.

Check and checkmate.

LOL... I'm sure you think so...

167 posted on 10/29/2006 2:46:17 PM PST by WildHorseCrash
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To: Jacob Kell

Oh brother. This is like junk-religion (i.e. junk science).


168 posted on 10/29/2006 2:47:35 PM PST by NotJustAnotherPrettyFace
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To: hosepipe

Jeepers hosepipe, people such as the current author are just getting so tiresome to me.... I'm really sick of this same ol' yada-yada-yada. It all seems so scripted to me. Sigh.


169 posted on 10/29/2006 2:49:14 PM PST by betty boop (Beautiful are the things we see...Much the most beautiful those we do not comprehend. -- N. Steensen)
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To: WKB

Hey, if that's what you need to go away...


170 posted on 10/29/2006 2:51:25 PM PST by WildHorseCrash
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To: Tench_Coxe

"It is absurd for the Evolutionist to complain that it is unthinkable for an admittedly unthinkable God to make everything out of nothing, and then pretend that it is more thinkable that nothing should turn itself into everything."-G.K. Chesterton


171 posted on 10/29/2006 2:51:30 PM PST by hosepipe (CAUTION: This propaganda is laced with hyperbole.)
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To: WildHorseCrash

Your personal attack on Christians (Christians are the group I was referring to up thread) validates my assertion that you lost this one.

Personal attacks are the last tool of those who know they've lost.

But please, be my guest, keep digging. And better luck next time.


172 posted on 10/29/2006 2:54:16 PM PST by Balding_Eagle (God has blessed Republicans with political enemies who are going senile.)
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To: WildHorseCrash; Balding_Eagle

"It wasn't a personal attack on a group of people, I was referring to Christians, i.e., more than one Christian."


So, Christians are not a group of people?


173 posted on 10/29/2006 2:57:55 PM PST by dixiechick2000 (There ought to be one day-- just one-- when there is open season on senators. ~~ Will Rogers)
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To: Balding_Eagle
Your personal attack on Christians (Christians are the group I was referring to up thread) validates my assertion that you lost this one.

I was commenting on a number of individual Christians, not Christians as a group. But believe whatever you want.

174 posted on 10/29/2006 2:58:00 PM PST by WildHorseCrash
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To: betty boop
[ Jeepers hosepipe, people such as the current author are just getting so tiresome to me.... ]

I figured so but my agenda was to brighten your day with a laugh..

This guy so reminds me of Professor Irwin Cory..
Example: "Marriage is like a bank account. You put it in, you take it out, you lose interest." -- Professor Irwin Cory

175 posted on 10/29/2006 2:59:30 PM PST by hosepipe (CAUTION: This propaganda is laced with hyperbole.)
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To: Balding_Eagle

"Personal attacks are the last tool of those who know they've lost."


So true...


176 posted on 10/29/2006 3:00:10 PM PST by dixiechick2000 (There ought to be one day-- just one-- when there is open season on senators. ~~ Will Rogers)
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To: dixiechick2000
[ So, Christians are not a group of people? ]

Not all christians are christians..... some are merely actors..

177 posted on 10/29/2006 3:02:44 PM PST by hosepipe (CAUTION: This propaganda is laced with hyperbole.)
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To: Jacob Kell

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/today/reports/archive/features/images/tftd_richard_dawkins.jpg


Richard Dawkins

* Evolutionist / Atheist

* Graduated at Oxford University (1962)

* D.Sc. at Oxford University / a protégé of biologist/ethologist Niko Tinbergen

* Honorary D.Litt. by the University of St Andrews (1995)

* Assistant Professor of Zoology at the University of California at Berkeley (1967-1969)

* Lecturer in Zoology at Oxford University and a Fellow of New College from 1970

* Charles Simonyi Professor of the Public Understanding of Science at Oxford University

* Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature

* 1989 Silver Medal of the Zoological Society of London

* 1990 Royal Society Michael Faraday Award

* 1994 Nakayama Prize for Human Science

* Vice President of the British Humanist Association (since 1996)

* Humanist of the Year Award (1996)

* Author: The Selfish Gene, The Extended Phenotype, The Blind Watchmaker, River Out of Eden, Climbing Mount Improbable, and Unweaving the Rainbow


http://www.hypnosisinmedia.com/Television/DoctorWho/wardl21.jpg

* Wife: actress and artist Lalla Ward

* Born: 1941 (Nairobi)


178 posted on 10/29/2006 3:02:55 PM PST by kcvl
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To: hosepipe; WildHorseCrash

"Not all christians are christians..... some are merely actors."


I don't disagree with you at all on that point.

Christianity is determined by faith, and not determined by one's denomination.

That is what WildHorseCrash doesn't seem to understand.


"What I've seen is Christians supporting the destruction of the natural world if it can make someone a buck, on the grounds that God gave it to us to do whatever we want with it."


That appears to be an attack on a group of people.
Maybe he/she would like to rewrite that sentence.


179 posted on 10/29/2006 3:10:32 PM PST by dixiechick2000 (There ought to be one day-- just one-- when there is open season on senators. ~~ Will Rogers)
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To: dixiechick2000
Christianity is determined by faith, and not determined by one's denomination.

That is what WildHorseCrash doesn't seem to understand.

No, I understand that you believe that. But the larger world does not agree with that understanding. Or, at least, they don't think that is the only, exclusive understanding.

That appears to be an attack on a group of people. Maybe he/she would like to rewrite that sentence.

No, "he" would not. It's an attack on those people who both 1) claim to be Christian and 2) believe that God gave nature and the world to us to do whatever we want with it. It is an attack (to the extent it even IS an attack) on no one else but those people. Certainly not all Christians.

180 posted on 10/29/2006 3:22:28 PM PST by WildHorseCrash
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