Posted on 10/03/2007 10:15:01 AM PDT by jacknhoo
Religion Must Be Destroyed, Atheist Alliance Declares By Matt Purple CNSNews.com Correspondent October 03, 2007
(CNSNews.com) - Science must ultimately destroy organized religion, according to some of the leading atheist writers and intellectuals who spoke at a recent atheist conference in Northern Virginia. God is a myth, and children must not be schooled in any faith, they said, at the "Crystal Clear Atheism" event, sponsored by the Atheist Alliance International.
Some of the luminaries who spoke at the conference, held at the Crown Royal Hotel in Crystal City, Va., over the weekend, included Oxford professor Richard Dawkins, author Sam Harris and journalist Christopher Hitchens. The Atheist Alliance International describes itself as "the only democratic national atheist organization in the United States."
While most attendees on Friday night were adamant that God was a myth, the convention, attended by hundreds of people, brought into focus a divide among atheists as to their identity as a movement and the nature of the enemy they faced.
In his speech, Dawkins portrayed a black-and-white intellectual battle between atheism and religion. He denounced the "preposterous nonsense of religious customs" and compared religion to racism. He also gave no quarter to moderate or liberal believers, asserting that "so-called moderate Christianity is simply an evasion."
"If you've been taught to believe it by moderates, what's to stop you from taking the next step and blowing yourself up?" he said.
By contrast, Harris's speech was a more tempered critique of the atheist movement itself. While Harris said he believed science must ultimately destroy religion, he also discussed spirituality and mysticism and called for a greater understanding of allegedly spiritual phenomena. He also cautioned the audience against lumping all religions together.
"The refrain that all religions have their extremists is bull-t," Harris said. "All religions do not have their extremists. Some religions have never had their extremists."
Specifically, he noted that radical Islam was far more threatening than any radical Christian sect, adding that Christians had a right to be outraged when the media treated the two religions similarly.
Harris also criticized movement atheism and questioned the use of the word "atheist."
"Atheism is not a philosophy, just as non-racism is not," he said. "It is not a worldview, though it is frequently portrayed as one.
"Rather than declare ourselves atheists, I think we should emphasize reason," Harris added.
While the audience gave Dawkins a standing ovation, Harris received only polite applause. One questioner later declared herself "very disappointed" in Harris's talk.
But whatever differences the speakers had with each other, they were united in their contempt for religion and their belief that religious faith had to be challenged and ridiculed by secularism and reason.
"Religion is not the root of all evil, but it gets in the way of [determining] how we got here and where we find ourselves," Dawkins said. "And that is an evil in itself."
Dawkins was particularly critical of parents who raise their children as a "Catholic child" or "Protestant child." Children must not be labeled as subscribing to a particular religion, he said, and should be allowed to examine the evidence and determine their beliefs for themselves.
"If I said that's a post-modernist child, for example, you'd think I was mad," he quipped.
Other speakers at the convention included philosopher Daniel Dennett, evolutionary scientist Eugenie Scott, and Charles Darwin's great-great-grandson Matthew Chapman. There was also a performance by atheist rapper Greydon Square, who wore a shirt that read "The Black Carl Sagan."
Many of the attendees seemed to have developed an aversion to religion from conservative, Protestant Christians. Several of the atheists Cybercast News Service spoke to complained of living under fundamentalist parents who frowned upon any questioning of the Bible or any activity condemned in Scripture.
"It wasn't easy [telling my parents I was an atheist]," one said. "I still haven't entirely told them. I just say I'm a humanist, which they don't seem to mind."
Further emphasizing the attendees' distaste for conservative religion was the convention gift shop which, in addition to atheist materials, sold politically liberal-themed bumper stickers and pins, including "Impeach Bush" and "Stewart/Colbert '08."
A common decoration at the convention was the red letter "A," which was emblazoned on t-shirts and pins worn by several of the attendees. The "A," an allusion to Hester Prynne's punishment in Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, is a symbol of the Out Campaign, a movement started by Dawkins to encourage Americans to proudly display their atheism.
Although Crystal Clear Atheism was well-attended, it received little publicity and media attention. The convention also experienced frequent technical difficulties, particularly during Dawkins' Powerpoint slideshow.
Atheists are still a small minority in America. A Newsweek poll earlier this year found that 91 percent of Americans believe in God. A more recent Pew Research Center poll found that atheists were among the most distrusted people in the nation, with 53 percent of Americans holding an unfavorable opinion of them.
But they are a proudly elitist and self-certain minority. When asked what the main difference between believers and atheists was, Dawkins had a quick answer: "Well, we're bright."
Let’s start with the atheist religion first. :-)
If you think about it... How can atheists help themselves if they can't get their minds to believe there is a God? I don't think you can force yourself to believe in something you don't believe in.
What's actually brighter... (a) To believe that the universe and everything in it came to be out of pure nothingness, or (b) someone/something that's bigger than anything you could imagine had a hand in creating it all? Kinda like a God or something.
I will select choice (b)! DAMN, I guess I'm not so bright!
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
“But they are a proudly elitist and self-certain minority.
When asked what the main difference between believers and atheists was,
Dawkins had a quick answer: “Well, we’re bright.” “
Apparently not “bright” enough to spot a deception.
(And being able to spot deception, such as “reading faces” is suppossed
to be a hallmark of evolution/intelligence.)
(VOA: I’m not in favor of what the film-makers did. But there is
a certain irony in the situation.)
Scientists Feel Miscast in Film on Life’s Origin (Creationist Dishonesty)
New York Times ^ | Sept 27, 2007 | CORNELIA DEAN
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1903061/posts
(excerpt from linked thread)
“But now, Dr. Dawkins and other scientists who agreed to be interviewed
say they are surprised — and in some cases, angered — to find
themselves not in “Crossroads” but in a film with a new name and
one that makes the case for intelligent design, an ideological
cousin of creationism.”
“If you’ve been taught to believe it by moderates, what’s to stop you from taking the next step and blowing yourself up?” he said.”
For a man who’s supposidly as smart as Hillary, Dawkins has allowed his rage to turn him into raving lunatic. He’s constantly making statements that are so detached from reality as to be laughable. That he feels threatened is obvious, but his response has become such that you have to question his emotional stability.
Militant atheism has a very unbecoming poster child.
“If you’ve been taught to believe it by moderates, what’s to stop you from taking the next step and blowing yourself up?” he said.”
For a man who’s supposidly as smart as Hillary, Dawkins has allowed his rage to turn him into raving lunatic. He’s constantly making statements that are so detached from reality as to be laughable. That he feels threatened is obvious, but his response has become such that you have to question his emotional stability.
Militant atheism has a very unbecoming poster child.
“If you’ve been taught to believe it by moderates, what’s to stop you from taking the next step and blowing yourself up?” he said.”
For a man who’s supposidly as smart as Hillary, Dawkins has allowed his rage to turn him into raving lunatic. He’s constantly making statements that are so detached from reality as to be laughable. That he feels threatened is obvious, but his response has become such that you have to question his emotional stability.
Militant atheism has a very unbecoming poster child.
Science must ultimately destroy organized religion
John 15:12 This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you.
Oh the horrors!!!!!!!!!
bookmark
How about walking around holding their hands to their foreheads with their thumbs and index fingers extended?
I don’t follow. T. Paine invoked reference to God in many of his speeches. Did he attack himself?
Here's something ironic in light of what Dawkins says: I just finished running some numbers, correlating estimated IQ by state versus % religious adherents by state. Estimated IQ numbers were obtained from the 2006 McDaniel NAEP IQ Estimates aggregate. Percent religious adherents, meaning those who profess a religion and attend services at least once a week, come from Jones, Doty, Grammich, Horsch, Houseal, Lynn, Marcum, Sanchagrin, and Taylor., Religious Congregations and Membership in the United States 2000: An Enumeration by Region, State and County Based on Data Reported by 149 Religious Bodies. (Which, incidentally, I am pretty sure is the source for this county-by-county map appearing on Dawkins' own website.)
The results?
There is a weak positive correlation between IQ and religiosity, R2 = 0.059 (as you can imagine, the data points are all over the place). In other words, as religiosity in a state increases, there is an ever-so-slight tendency for IQ to be higher. "We're bright", Mr. Dawkins?
Atheism is a religion.
That's not science, but scientism.
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We have an anarchist association as well; how silly must it look to those left who have no desire to change the world?
True. Those who have met the Lord personally and faithfully can never question if He exists. You KNOW He exists.
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