Posted on 05/18/2007 9:06:58 AM PDT by Jakarta ex-pat
ROOT OF ALL EVIL?
THE God Delusion - based on Richard Dawkins' book The God Delusion - is the best documentary I've ever seen. And, I imagine, will ever see. No jokes. No smart-arse cracks. No witty asides.
Dawkins is a scientist and passionate atheist who has produced a stunning, thoroughly researched and expertly executed work that flatly denies the existence of God and illustrates what a destructive force religion is. Even in its mildest form. This provocative and entertaining ride will have some believers coming out the other end as atheists. And every Bible basher, Torah toter and Koran carrier calling the ABC to complain.
As I watched this masterpiece unfold, I couldn't remember the last time I had seen something so brilliant on the idiot box. Dawkins unapologetically refuses to treat religion differently to any other subject. There is no tiptoeing in fear of "offending" anyone (how you can offend people with truth is beyond me). Dawkins has harnessed his skill as a scientist, his hunger for truth and his rage to prove that God is a delusion that's infecting the world. He refers to "the process of non-thinking called faith" and bemoans "that the idea of a divine creator belittles the elegant reality of the universe". He liberates the viewer with the conclusion that "atheism is life-affirming in a way religion can never be".
Atheists will watch this show and feel as if they have died and gone to heaven as they see a bloke far more smarterer than themselves poke that animal in the cage. The fundamentalists, the evangelicals, the dabblers and the moderates all cop it. Dawkins dismembers the lot with a scalpel. It's intoxicating for born-again atheists like myself. I have taken the Flying Spaghetti Monster as my Lord and personal saviour. That's right. I am a Pastafarian.
Atheism is, it seems, the new black. Dawkins' offering will not simply be preaching to the converted but actually convert fence-sitters with truth and reason.
Dawkins describes the God of the Old Testament as "the most unpleasant character in all fiction. Jealous and proud of it. Petty, vindictive, unforgiving and racist. An ethnic cleanser urging his people on to acts of genocide."
Then Moses cops it. Dawkins quotes a Bible story and asks: "How is this story morally distinguishable from Hitler's rape of Poland or Saddam Hussein's massacre of the Kurds or the Marsh Arabs?"
Dawkins' masterful command of the language and his glorious Britishness is a delight throughout: "So Jesus had himself tortured and executed for a symbolic sin by a non-existent individual. Nobody not bought up in the faith could reach to any verdict other than barking mad." He tells us that "killing for God is not just hideous murder but utterly ridiculous".
On Sunday night, if you listen carefully, you'll hear atheists all over Australia leaning back in their chairs, putting their feet on the coffee table and saying, "I'm with him." And I'll be one of them.
“Dawkins is a scientist and passionate atheist who has produced a stunning, thoroughly researched and expertly executed work that flatly denies the existence of God and illustrates what a destructive force religion is.”
So he’s writing hate speach?
What gods did Stalin, Mao and the Khmer Rouge follow?
What’s ironic is that atheism has killed more people in a century than Islam has in fourteen.
They practiced Communism as a religion. An orthodoxy had to be followed and grave consequences for those who didn’t.
Before the sun becomes a red giant and consumes the inner planets, the Andromeda Galaxy will be here and will have collided with the Milky Way. Those who remain on earth at that time, if they care, will not see the band of light of the Milky Way as we see it now. They will see a roundish cluster of stars, about twice as many stars as the Milky Way by itself, and they will see it four times farther from the center as we are now. See spaceflightnow.com
and here I thought money was the root of all evil
I haven’t seen the documentary or read Dawkins’ book. If I want to waste time, I can find other more enjoyable ways to do it. But I have heard him on interviews, and his basic take on religious believers is that they are stupid and deranged.
As God is my witness, that’s about all there is.
Same for Sam Harris.
Profound! Brilliant! Stunning!
I think this is the guy O’Reilly had on a couple of weeks ago and cleaned his clock.
Simple logic tells one that the elegance of the universe argues very strongly in *favor* of an all powerful,divine Creator!
1. Where did the physical matter that comprises the Universe come from?
2. How far does it extend?
3. How long has it existed?
I saw the inteview and think Dawkins held himself pretty well. O’Reilly kept insisting that the only way to explain the tide going in and out was by reffering to a Creator and Dawkins told him that we know perfectly well why the tide goes back and forth.
Projection.
” Atheism is, it seems, the new black. Dawkins’ offering will not simply be preaching to the converted but actually convert fence-sitters with truth and reason. “
At least he agrees that all “religions” are not created equal. I applaude that he can discern and take exception on to his conclusions.
Hope he’s not too successful in his proselytizing.
The Dawkins Delusion
One of the fundamental logical errors that atheists make is in assuming that personal non-experience of a proposition equals the falsehood of said proposition.
bump
take exception on to his conclusions.
take exception onLY to his conclusions.
There, fixed it.
I guess this is not exactly a claim to "prove a negative" but it seems fairly close. And is therefore little more than mental masturbation. There's no point to the exercise, but it makes Dawkins feel good.
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