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 ...
I like the author's name "blech" -- exactly what i think of Dawkins.
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Sadly, this is not entirely true. Think of the environmental science activists like Micheal Mann and his hockey stick.
Good point, but I'm afraid it will be missed by those that don't already get it.
People who are bad at making good moral decisions are usually the best at justifying themselves, and the least good at understanding morality. The guy quoted at the top of the article of coarse thinks he is too good for God. We are talking psychosis here. It is both fascinating and unnerving to try to talk sense about morality with someone desperately hiding from God.
Too true.
I was thinking from the perspective of logic. As C. S. Lewis demonstrated in The Abolition of Man, everybody has moral axioms, whether or not they are consciously aware of it. Dawkins and Harris seem to fall firmly into the "not" category. To save myself a rant, they (as summarized in the article) blather endlessly about why a species adopts a set of behaviors, but present no reason why I, or any other individual, should adopt those behaviors.
Morality and all of its associated ideals are rooted entirely in the presupposition some higher power defines what is correct in human behavior.
Morality and all of its associated ideals are rooted entirely in the presupposition some higher power defines what is correct for human behavior.
Their favorite ones, that of a condescending oligarchy of secular humanists. Looking back to the glory days of likes of Freud, Jung, Sanger, and other so-called scientists who zealously fought to deny the presence of God, our modern day Illuminati do not merely deny the existince of God, they openly hate Him and work diligently to lash out at Him. On the one hand, they worship at the altar of Charles Darwin's evolution theory, supposing man to be no more noble than apes. On the other hand, they feel it their role to enlighten man from the chains of religion as if they have some moral duty to do so.
Truly, the athiest of the day is in a moral dilemma. If one were to bonk them over the head with a large stick, they would protest, but on what grounds? If we're simply the product of evolution, then let the process play itself out, bonk 'em on the head. Survival of the fittest, baby.
I've not read Abolition of Man, but I am a big fan of Lewis, too.
And, from the piece:
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.
Turning the tables? That's rich. There's always been a certain anti-God strain in some of those who push evolution as the answer to how we came to be. I wasn't gifted with an intellect designed for understanding complex science, but that said, that also makes it impossible for me to accept evolution as fact, because my lack of understanding requires a leap of faith. And, if I'm going to make any leap of faith, it'll be with God.
Here's a piece by Tom Wolfe that I found a while back, that's pretty good.
Well, we transcended Communism, perhaps one day we will also transcend evolution.
Religious believers will have the last laugh, if for no other reason than they will still be around, merrily reproducing, long after the liberal atheist evolutionists have extincted themselves through contraception, abortion, gay marriage, and euthanasia.
The hilarious irony of it all is, Dawkins and his ilk who reverence Darwinian evolution with greater fervor than the children of Israel reverenced Jehovah, are slated for annihilation by their own Darwinian god. In strict obedience to his edicts they are strangling themselves with their own hands and leaving the field to the religious infidels they detest.
Actually, unless you are 'designed' or 'evolved' as a carrion eater, most uncivilized carnivores prefer their prey to be alive when eaten. Dead animals tend to go sour very fast. Lots of bad bacteria and other disease organisms proliferate in a dead carcass. FYI - I eat meat killed professionally and cooked of course. However, sushi is fairly decent if fresh.
That is what they are best at, unfortunately. While working in Hollywood I once heard an old hippie say to someone he had not seen in a couple of decades, 'Wow, you are still alive ?'.
The ancient City-States in Greece learned similar lessons long before the single god religions appeared. The story goes that the Thebans actually fielded a fighting force comprised of all gay men (called the Theban Sacred Band). The theory was that gay men would fight stronger if their gay lover was fighting next to them. Unfortunately for the gay 'Sacred Band', the bisexual Macedonian Alexander the Great slaughtered them all in one battle. A marble lion statue still stands at Chaeronea where the Sacred Band are buried. Apparently, some lessons take thousands of years to be learnt.
"Religion is the source of evil"
- Karl Marx
Rom. 1:21 For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools.
Postmodernism is the latest in a long line of absurdities."
Quote:
"...Freudianism says that all beliefs and behaviors flow out of certain psychosexual complexes ...all beliefs except, of course, Freudianism, and all behaviors except, of course, the behavior of expounding Freudianism.
Evolutionism says that all characteristics, including the development of thinking brains, are selected naturally to favor survival...not necessarily the apprehension of truth; this belief suggests that the very organ which conceives of evolution is oriented to produce useful theories, but not necessarily true ones. And radical postmodernism rejects the universal truthfulness of every other belief while assuming its own position as the
only universally true one."
By Professor McLaren
Ok, let's see here... If religion is the source of evil, and morals and selfishness are a result of evolution (morals being blamed on religion) then evolution must be the source of evil. I got it.
Great post.
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