Dawkins defends comments about "Alien Designers".

Discussion in 'Science & Society' started by clusteringflux, Apr 15, 2008.

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  1. (Q)

    (Q) Encephaloid Martini Valued Senior Member

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    What? Another theist commenting on Dawkins? Piss off.

    Terry Eagleton: "Eagleton obtained his Ph.D. from Trinity College, Cambridge and then became a Fellow of Jesus College, Cambridge."

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terry_Eagleton
     
    (Q), Apr 19, 2008
    #161

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  3. S.A.M.

    S.A.M. uniquely dreadful Valued Senior Member

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    So its just petty jealousy, then?


    Exactly and especially not the better part of a century <still in progress, btw, see Jong-il>

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    S.A.M., Apr 19, 2008
    #162

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  5. S.A.M.

    S.A.M. uniquely dreadful Valued Senior Member

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    And Dawkins was educated in a Methodist school and is currently in Oxford, established by monks and theologians. ooh closet theist!!!!!!!

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    http://education.guardian.co.uk/academicexperts/story/0,1392,643458,00.html
     
    S.A.M., Apr 19, 2008
    #163

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  7. (Q)

    (Q) Encephaloid Martini Valued Senior Member

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    Cite?
     
    (Q), Apr 19, 2008
    #164
  8. ElectricFetus

    ElectricFetus Sanity going, going, gone Valued Senior Member

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    I don't see any evidence atheist are better at it, perhaps modern technology has made genocide more efficient and has also breed more atheist, but it is a Questionable Cause fallacy to connect them, a result of either ignorance, judgmental bias or both on your part.
     
    ElectricFetus, Apr 19, 2008
    #165
  9. S.A.M.

    S.A.M. uniquely dreadful Valued Senior Member

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    Hmm so you don't see any connection between some nations becoming officially atheist and the genocide of believers alongwith the banning of religious practice?
     
    S.A.M., Apr 19, 2008
    #166
  10. (Q)

    (Q) Encephaloid Martini Valued Senior Member

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    Yes, I've seen this connection many times, usually by theists who cannot comprehend existence without their gods, one of many delusions they devise.
     
    (Q), Apr 19, 2008
    #167
  11. S.A.M.

    S.A.M. uniquely dreadful Valued Senior Member

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    Which part? He was confirmed at school (he's never given the name that I remember) and is a lapsed CofE. Apparently Anglican, not Methodist, though I don't know the difference.

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2003/feb/10/religion.scienceandnature

    Oxford? He is the Charles Simonyi Professor of the Public [Mis]Understanding of Science Religion, Oxford University
     
    S.A.M., Apr 19, 2008
    #168
  12. ElectricFetus

    ElectricFetus Sanity going, going, gone Valued Senior Member

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    Nope, plenty of theists states and leaders have committed genocide and oppressed freedoms, in fact many did so against other theist simply because they believed in a different religion.
     
    ElectricFetus, Apr 19, 2008
    #169
  13. S.A.M.

    S.A.M. uniquely dreadful Valued Senior Member

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    So existence without Gods means

    1. Theists are stupid and inferior [besides being delusional and violent liars]
    2. Shut down faith schools
    3. Parents should not have control over their own children

    ie totalitarianism? Yeah, I get it. Jong-il is a shining flag bearer

    Puts a few hundred Christians to death every year and "disposes" of mutant infants regardless of the parents opinions. Shut down all faith schools too, last I heard.

    Dawkins would be thrilled at parents not being allowed to practice their faith with their children. Down with child abuse, eh?
     
    S.A.M., Apr 19, 2008
    #170
  14. (Q)

    (Q) Encephaloid Martini Valued Senior Member

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    Yes, I know.
     
    (Q), Apr 19, 2008
    #171
  15. S.A.M.

    S.A.M. uniquely dreadful Valued Senior Member

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    All atheist regimes have been totalitarian.
     
    S.A.M., Apr 19, 2008
    #172
  16. (Q)

    (Q) Encephaloid Martini Valued Senior Member

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    (Q), Apr 19, 2008
    #173
  17. (Q)

    (Q) Encephaloid Martini Valued Senior Member

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    (Q), Apr 19, 2008
    #174
  18. S.A.M.

    S.A.M. uniquely dreadful Valued Senior Member

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    I knew you'd be happy to see a society where the violent delusions of theists were firmly held in check

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    S.A.M., Apr 19, 2008
    #175
  19. ElectricFetus

    ElectricFetus Sanity going, going, gone Valued Senior Member

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    There forth all atheism is totalitarian?

    Most secular countries seem to do that.
     
    ElectricFetus, Apr 19, 2008
    #176
  20. S.A.M.

    S.A.M. uniquely dreadful Valued Senior Member

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    S.A.M., Apr 19, 2008
    #177
  21. Fraggle Rocker

    Fraggle Rocker Staff Member

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    I suppose that's the schism in the "atheist community," as if there were such a community. Those of us who believe "freedom of religion" means just that, versus those whose mission is to illustrate why we must allow freedom of religion no matter what the cost. Our premise is not just that religion is false, but that the world would be a better place without it. If we make the world a worse place by trying to eliminate religion before the time is right for that to happen naturally, then we become antireligous despots who are no better than the religious despots: we end up causing a lot of suffering over a mere idea, rather than anything concrete. An idea that the scientists among us will be quick to point out has a vanishingly small but non-zero chance of being wrong.
    Child abuse is a slippery concept. Like many of the choices in the real world, there's no clear delineation between right and wrong so we just have to draw the line somewhere and be content with that. We're prosecuting Christian Scientists who let their children die of easily curable ailments rather than join the "mainstream" who believe that God put all these really smart scientists and doctors here to help them. We're prosecuting men in Mormon splinter groups who believe that it's God's will to coerce fourteen-year-old girls into marriage--several of them apiece. We're removing textbooks from Islamic schools which teach children that Christians and Jews are inferior and therefore do not have the same rights as they do.

    Basically we're saying that there's a point on the spectrum of religion beyond which you're not allowed to go no matter how sincerely you believe in it, and you reach that point when you start taking your child too far out of the mainstream. This seems like reasonable and responsible support of civilization to us, but to them it feels like persecution. We are, after all, deciding for them which specific types of religion are tolerated and which are not.

    But the only defense of this vague standard is that it's not specifically directed at religious communities. Gypsies have to send their children to school. Latinos can't mentor their children in running dog- or cockfights. Nobody gets to attack his child with a whip.
     
    Fraggle Rocker, Apr 21, 2008
    #178
  22. iceaura

    iceaura Valued Senior Member

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    Yep. Haven't actually read him yet, have you.
    What a bizarrre conception of what "atheism" amounts to. Now it is some kind of organization that Dawkins controls, and can use ?
    Hard to see how anyone could "go further" than we have been seeing among theists, for a thousand years and more, planetwide.
     
    iceaura, Apr 21, 2008
    #179
  23. S.A.M.

    S.A.M. uniquely dreadful Valued Senior Member

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    Don't have to go very far. Just visit North Korea, for instance and look at the Christians there. Or visit Tibet and look at the religious freedom there. Dawkins for all his erudition, is hardly original.
     
    S.A.M., Apr 21, 2008
    #180
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