Samantha Atkins wrote:
On Dec 10, 2007, at 6:29 AM, Mike Dougherty wrote:
On Dec 10, 2007 6:59 AM, John G. Rose <[EMAIL PROTECTED]
<mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>> wrote:
Dawkins trivializes religion from his comfortable first world
perspective ignoring the way of life of hundreds of millions of
people and offers little substitute for what religion does and
has done for civilization and what has came out of it over the
ages. He's a spoiled brat prude with a glaring self-righteous
desire to prove to people with his copious superficial factoids
that god doesn't exist by pandering to common frustrations. He
has little common sense about the subject in general, just his
Wow. Nice to see someone take that position on Dawkins. I'm
ambivalent, but I haven't seen many rational comments against him and
his views.
Wow, you consider the above remotely rational?
A reasonable point, but Dawkins *does* frequently engage in "premature
certainty", at least from my perspective. I would find him less
offensive than the theistic preachers if he weren't making
pronouncements based on his authority as a scientist. He is a good
scientist, and I respect him in the realm of biology and genetics. When
he delves into psychology and religion I feel like he is using his
authority in one area to bolster his opinions in another area. If he
were to make similar pronouncements for or against negative energy,
people would be appalled, and he's just as out of his field in
religion. Unfortunately, so is everyone else. So he's got as much
right to his opinion has anyone else, but no more. Ditto for Billy
Graham, the Pope, or any other authority you might cite.
People don't usually even bother to use well defined terms, so
frequently you can't even tell whether they are arguing or agreeing.
When I'm feeling cynical I feel this is on purpose, so that they can
pick and choose their allies based on expediency. Clearly much of what
is passed off as religious doctrine is political expediency, and has no
value whatsoever WRT arguments about truth.
So Dawkins is less offensive than most...but nearly equally
wrong-headed. OTOH, he's probably not lying about what his real beliefs
are. He has that over most preachers.
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