[+/-] Dawkins on evolution and religion
Richard Dawkins explains how humanity would be better off without religion:
We'd all be freed to concentrate on the only life we are ever going to have. We'd be free to exult in the privilege -- the remarkable good fortune -- that each one of us enjoys through having been being born. An astronomically overwhelming majority of the people who could be born never will be. You are one of the tiny minority whose number came up. Be thankful that you have a life, and forsake your vain and presumptuous desire for a second one. The world would be a better place if we all had this positive attitude to life. It would also be a better place if morality was all about doing good to others and refraining from hurting them, rather than religion's morbid obsession with private sin and the evils of sexual enjoyment.
Read the lengthy interview with evolutionary biologist Dawkins and he will explain why God is a delusion, expound on why religion is a virus, and argue that America has slipped back into the Dark Ages. Good stuff.
posted by Nanovirus @ 14:25 permalink
your thoughts? 4
4 Comments:
WOW! I am so glad to be enlightened by such a smart guy. I wonder where all his hate comes from? And here is a good question: Why do people who don't beleive in God always try to put down the Catholic church? Why do they worry about the church not letting women be priests, if a woman wants to be a preist she can just join another faith, unless she believes that the true faith is with the Catholic church, and if it is then the Church has always taught that men are ordained and women are not. If truth doesn't change (which it doesn't) then to change what is taught is to leave the truth. I hope you aren't confused by how simple that is.
Can deal with a well-reasoned essay so you have to dismiss it as "hate" huh? Easy now... your cognitive dissonance is showing.
Oops. That was supposed to be "Can't". Still, I'd rather be a poor typist than a believer ;)
I really like this segment (particularly the parts in bold):
A delusion that encourages belief where there is no evidence is asking for trouble. Disagreements between incompatible beliefs cannot be settled by reasoned argument because reasoned argument is drummed out of those trained in religion from the cradle. Instead, disagreements are settled by other means which, in extreme cases, inevitably become violent. Scientists disagree among themselves but they never fight over their disagreements. They argue about evidence or go out and seek new evidence. Much the same is true of philosophers, historians and literary critics.
But you don't do that if you just know your holy book is the God-written truth and the other guy knows that his incompatible scripture is too. People brought up to believe in faith and private revelation cannot be persuaded by evidence to change their minds. No wonder religious zealots throughout history have resorted to torture and execution, to crusades and jihads, to holy wars and purges and pogroms, to the Inquisition and the burning of witches.
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