[Forgiven_Sinner]

My favorite historian comments on the evolution question. Paul C. Johnson is a catholic, and a likely believer in evolution; none the less, he cautions against Dawkins' extremism.

Time will tell if he is right.

[Coyoteman]

In the first main paragraph:

Darwinian fundamentalists, and they cling to their absolutist position with all the unyielding certitude with which Southern Baptists assert the literal truth of the Book of Genesis, or Wahabi Muslims proclaim the need for a universal jihad against ‘the Great Satan’. At a revivalist meeting of Darwinians two or three years ago...

Tripe alert! Don't need to read any farther.

[UnklGene]

[sumocide]

"Aytollah, fundamentalist, Wahabi muslims"

Go ahead, label them terrorists. I know you want to.

[Tax-chick]

bttt

[Donald Meaker]

Science thrives on research.

I suggest you identify an alternative. With a little thought, we can come up with an experiment, and publish the results.

[jennyp]

Much of the blame lies with Richard Dawkins, head of the Darwinian fundamentalists in this country, who has (it seems) indissolubly linked Darwin to the more extreme forms of atheism, and projected on to our senses a dismal world in which life has no purpose or meaning and a human being has no more significance than a piece of rock, being subject to the same blind processes of pitiless, unfeeling, unthinking nature. The sheer moral, emotional and intellectual emptiness of the universe as seen by the Darwinian bigots is enough to make mere humans (as opposed to scientific high priests), and especially young ones, despair, and wonder what is the point of going on with existence in a world which is hard enough to endure even without the Darwinian nightmare.

WRT our lives, the universe is a blank canvas, waiting for us to "paint" our lives and world onto it. Johnson, like many creationists, seems to be driven by a feeling of terror that the universe's "canvas" doesn't come printed with a paint-by-numbers outline to tell us what to paint & how.

(Well, the universe does come with a comprehensible, unchanging set of basic laws of physics, & chemistry, etc. that we can use as a framework upon which to build our lives & societies. Maybe that's like the canvas not jumping around spontaneously or changing shape or color or flinging off our brushstrokes at random. Eh, all analogies have their limits. :-)

[beavus]

So now defending reason against fundamentalism is to be called "fundamentalism" by the fundamentalists.

Something tells me Dawkins would not be surprised by such a silly attack.

[Tzimisce]

I've been saying that Atheism is a religion for YEARS. About time someone read my blogs.

[microgood]

But he has his passionate defenders too, and occupies an overwhelmingly strong position in Oxford, not a university famous for its contribution to science to be sure, but one where personalities notorious for extreme opinions of a quasi-theological kind are much applauded, even canonised, as witness Pusey, Keble, Newman and Jowett. To ferocious undergraduate iconoclasts he is the ayatollah of atheism, and in consequence much wined and dined in smart London society.

LOL..I bet less than 1% of Americans know who Dawkins is, even though he shouts obsentities at us across the pond.

[bvw]

Time will tell if he is right.

Aye, sure and it hath so done! For the article is dated "5/27/08 | PAUL JOHNSON". I see you figured out how to unwarp higher dimensionalia membranes. Care to share the trick?

[Revolting cat!]

I'll take the word of a Paul Johnson, even if he were to argue the earth is flat, over the gibberish from some anonymous poster on an obscure Internet forum, who doesn't know the difference between "its" and "it's", and claims his life's mission is to "defend science"!

[RunningWolf]

Thanks for the article.

BTW 'The ayatollah of atheism and Darwin’s altars' sounds like 'Wolf' ;)

[13Sisters76]

Paul Johnson is my favorite historian as well. I believe his stand is that we just don't know. I do not understand why we cannot just acept that, because no one DOES know.

Another excellent "Johnson" to read is Philip. He is a lawyer who argues against Darwinism based on the known facts. He makes about the best arguments I've read.

[BnBlFlag]

Gee, Paul. Thanks for equating Southern Baptists with Wahabbi Muslims. You have lost much credibility with that asinine statement. Typical Catholic ignorance of Protestanism.

[DungeonMaster]

I have been in a big fight with my parents for about a year or so. It turns out that they don't seem to like my wife and I very much due to our differing religions. They are Evolutionists and we are Christians.