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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: WildHorseCrash

Got a news flash for you the stories are NOT made up. You do however have the God given choice to pay attention or NOT.

"Atheist-ism" does too have a god, the person themselves are elevated to that stature.

Hey time is well down the hour glass so won't be long to assess who is on the RIGHT side and who is not.


81 posted on 10/29/2006 10:29:54 AM PST by Just mythoughts
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To: gidget7
freedom from self reflection???????? Are you kidding me?? Our faith is all about self reflection, and how to make ourselves into Godly creatures.

The "God said it; I believe it; that settles it" mindset rejects the fact that humans are descended from non-human primates and blinds them to the fact that they are shutting out science because of their religion.

Hell, some of them even refuse to believe that homo sapiens are African Great Apes. Why? Because they don't have the self-reflection enough to recognize that their religious ideology is forcing them to deny scientific, factual facts because it doesn't coincide with their unsupported religious predispositions. They believe that God said they are made in the image of God, so they believe it, and that settles it.

Now you may not have this same mindset. But the fact that you believe that you can be made into a "Godly creature" makes me question that.

82 posted on 10/29/2006 10:35:39 AM PST by WildHorseCrash
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To: dr_lew

When you place the flesh of slaughtered cattle in your mouths, know and feel, that you are devouring your fellow-creature.

Wow

Do you feel that way when you eat a potato.

Cause if evolution is true that potato is your cousin.

83 posted on 10/29/2006 10:36:14 AM PST by Creationist (If the earth is old show me your proof. Salvation from the judgment of your sins is free.)
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To: Jacob Kell
Richard Dawkins

Just say the name. The rest is superfluous. Saves bandwidth.

84 posted on 10/29/2006 10:37:17 AM PST by RightWhale (Repeal the law of the excluded middle)
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To: Creationist

We share 1/2 our DNA structure with the plant kingdom. Think of it: if we were not related we could get no nutrition from plants. Might as well eat rocks.


85 posted on 10/29/2006 10:39:14 AM PST by RightWhale (Repeal the law of the excluded middle)
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To: Jacob Kell

Coming from a country who's future is Islamic Sharia law this article is a joke.


86 posted on 10/29/2006 10:41:46 AM PST by John Lenin
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To: Just mythoughts
Got a news flash for you the stories are NOT made up. You do however have the God given choice to pay attention or NOT.

They aren't WHOLLY made up. I mean, the city of Jerusalem does exist, for example. But the fantastical parts are definitely made up. The stories Genesis and the rest of the Old Testament are an attempt by a primitive people to explain the world around them, without the tolls or ideas which could have permitted to get it right.

"Atheist-ism" does too have a god, the person themselves are elevated to that stature.

Well, since you just made it up, feel free to believe what you want.

Hey time is well down the hour glass so won't be long to assess who is on the RIGHT side and who is not.

Or, when are time expires and our brains cease functioning, our consciousnesses will fade away and we will be unable to assess anything.

87 posted on 10/29/2006 10:49:06 AM PST by WildHorseCrash
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To: WildHorseCrash
Or, when are time expires and our brains cease functioning, our consciousnesses will fade away and we will be unable to assess anything.

A prospect so terrifying to billions that they had to invent Heaven as a comforting alternative.

Sad.

88 posted on 10/29/2006 10:52:06 AM PST by Wormwood (Everybody lies, but it doesn't matter because nobody listens.)
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To: WildHorseCrash
The stories Genesis and the rest of the Old Testament are an attempt by a primitive people to explain the world around them, without the tolls or ideas which could have permitted to get it right.

Should have read:

The stories in Genesis and the rest of the Old Testament are an attempt by a primitive people to explain the world around them, without the tools or ideas which could have permitted them to get it right.

89 posted on 10/29/2006 10:54:27 AM PST by WildHorseCrash
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To: Wormwood
Sad.

Indeed. What is most sad to me is the lost opportunities which such a believe system causes.

90 posted on 10/29/2006 10:57:27 AM PST by WildHorseCrash
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To: WildHorseCrash
I will say to you, you have NO idea what Genesis from the original Hebrew actually says, especially those first 6 chapters. This modern age has NO clue, well some do, reason for the invention of evolution but there is nothing new under the sun as it is written.

Psalms 22 foretold of Christ's death and exactly what that chief high priest would say and what those soldiers would do. That makes King David a Prophet as welll as part of the line though which Christ would come.

Christ Himself said that He came not to destroy the LAW or the Prophets. Paul said that what was written of them was for our admonition (warning) as to what would happen again to bring an end to this world (flesh) age. When somebody tells me the script has already been written long ago and all I need to is to read with understanding as what is to be again I pay attention.

Then again as Christ Himself said it was written that NOT all would see/hear for their own protection that many were called and few chosen.

Doesn't matter to you what is already foretold that would be, so be it. I personally am not satisfied with what man has to say.
91 posted on 10/29/2006 11:12:14 AM PST by Just mythoughts
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To: Just mythoughts
I will say to you, you have NO idea what Genesis from the original Hebrew actually says, especially those first 6 chapters.

Since I don't read Hebrew, that is true. However, I've read enough, differing translations, to get the gist of what it says. So unless there's been a conspiracy lasting hundreds of years covering up a number of false translations, I have a fair idea of what it says.

This modern age has NO clue, well some do, reason for the invention of evolution but there is nothing new under the sun as it is written.

This makes no sense. But, evolution was formulated to explain the diversity of life.

Psalms 22 foretold of Christ's death and exactly what that chief high priest would say and what those soldiers would do. That makes King David a Prophet as welll as part of the line though which Christ would come.

Interestingly, Psalm 22 doesn't contain the name "Jesus" even once. If ol' Dave was such a great prophet, you would expect him to at least mentioned it, even if just in passing... Also, since the Gospels were written well after the Psalms, it wouldn't be too difficult to make the former conform to the latter.

Christ Himself said that He came not to destroy the LAW or the Prophets. Paul said that what was written of them was for our admonition (warning) as to what would happen again to bring an end to this world (flesh) age. When somebody tells me the script has already been written long ago and all I need to is to read with understanding as what is to be again I pay attention.

Of course, this presupposes that one actually believes this stuff.

Then again as Christ Himself said it was written that NOT all would see/hear for their own protection that many were called and few chosen.

So? The Koran says something different, as do all the other holy books in history.

Doesn't matter to you what is already foretold that would be, so be it. I personally am not satisfied with what man has to say.

Yes you are. The men you are satisfied with lived and died thousands of years ago.

92 posted on 10/29/2006 11:26:19 AM PST by WildHorseCrash
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To: WildHorseCrash
You can keep on fighting the 30 Years War but the Treaty of Westphalia, one of the most enlightened items in the history of mankind, brought an end to it.

BTW, you may have missed it, but you made an appeal to morality in justifying your thought that killing is bad.

93 posted on 10/29/2006 11:30:20 AM PST by muawiyah
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To: WildHorseCrash
Were you to KNOW and understand what is actually said in that original Hebrew, penned not by some dumb sheep herder as suggested by some, you and I would not be having this conversation. The science laid out in Genesis makes evolution to be what it is, child's play of deception.

Moses penned Genesis and he was raised under the Egyptian Pharaoh, not quite the picture of some dumb sheep herder as like to be presented by some opposed to the Genesis instruction.
94 posted on 10/29/2006 11:34:07 AM PST by Just mythoughts
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To: WildHorseCrash

Why should I do anything at all? I had nothing to do with your plight, and if I walk on by what is it to you?


95 posted on 10/29/2006 11:34:44 AM PST by muawiyah
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To: dr_lew
Just because plants don't have a network of sensory and motor neurons doesn't mean they don't partake of thinking at some level ~ maybe a direct DNA to quantum level sort of computing perhaps ~ total consciousness ~ one with the universe ~ that sort of thing.

I suspect that the plants, if they could, would "object" to our devouring them.

96 posted on 10/29/2006 11:41:14 AM PST by muawiyah
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To: muawiyah
You can keep on fighting the 30 Years War but the Treaty of Westphalia, one of the most enlightened items in the history of mankind, brought an end to it.

I don't see what you're getting at. Certainly Europe's religious wars are a prime example of what I'm talking about: the idiocy of religion-based murder.

BTW, you may have missed it, but you made an appeal to morality in justifying your thought that killing is bad.

This belief is axiomatic in the conversation. I would hope that both of use believe that unjustified killing is wrong, regardless of why we believe that.

97 posted on 10/29/2006 11:43:57 AM PST by WildHorseCrash
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To: WildHorseCrash
There is a Christian Doctrine referred to as "amnesty from Oblivion". This is the doctrine that recognizes that God spoke to man in different forms and different ways in past times.

It's the very reason we don't spend a lot of time condemning the ancient Greeks or Romans, or even today's Hindus.

98 posted on 10/29/2006 11:46:37 AM PST by muawiyah
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To: WildHorseCrash
Indian Great Apes ~ probably moved back and forth, back and forth, many times over the ages. Just a matter of finding the skeletons.

Now, what was it you were saying Christianity, or religion in general, REQUIRES of us?

99 posted on 10/29/2006 11:48:09 AM PST by muawiyah
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To: Wormwood
Other billions seek Oblivion ~ to get off an endless path of reincarnation.

Do you have evidence that we do, in fact, die (at the level of consciousness).

100 posted on 10/29/2006 11:49:54 AM PST by muawiyah
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