BeerLeague2
Posts:111
 | | 09/12/2007 6:38 PM |
 Alert | Has anyone read this book by Richard Dawkins? I'm currently reading it and it's quite amazing stuff.
I'd love to discuss it with others... | | | |
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Marni
Posts:500
| | 09/12/2007 7:14 PM |
Alert | | I am reading it. I am on Page 304. I think I may have to read it again, I took way too many breaks. It is quite fascinating though. | |
Vote NO on Prop 102 | |
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BeerLeague2
Posts:111
| | 09/12/2007 8:09 PM |
Alert | You kind of have to take breaks as it's a lot of scientific information to digest at once. I'm sure I'll end of reading it several times.
I just finished the chapter where he talks about the roots of religion--this is a topic I've always been fascinated with. I've always believed that man invented religious superstitions to help grapple with the "where did we come from and why are we here?" questions. But it never really occured to me to ask how these religious impulses have survived natural selection and/or what is religion a by-product of. Absolutely fascinating.
My favorite quote of the book so far: "One of the truly bad effects of religion is that it teaches us that it is a virtue to be satisfied with not understanding". I can't agree more. It's like organized religions train us to check our brains at the front door and not ask any tough questions. I guess ignorance really is bliss 
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Java Lover
Posts:0
| | 09/12/2007 9:54 PM |
Alert | Posted By BeerLeague2 on 09/12/2007 8:09 PM My favorite quote of the book so far: "One of the truly bad effects of religion is that it teaches us that it is a virtue to be satisfied with not understanding". I can't agree more. It's like organized religions train us to check our brains at the front door and not ask any tough questions. I guess ignorance really is bliss
I couldn't disagree with this assumption more. My beliefs do not require that I believe just because. My beliefs encourage study and validating. Maybe I'm not the typical Christian, but there is nothing blind about my beliefs.
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JAG
Posts:530
| | 09/12/2007 11:40 PM |
Alert | Posted By BeerLeague2 on 09/12/2007 8:09 PM My favorite quote of the book so far: "One of the truly bad effects of religion is that it teaches us that it is a virtue to be satisfied with not understanding". I can't agree more. It's like organized religions train us to check our brains at the front door and not ask any tough questions. I guess ignorance really is bliss
Could you state what you would consider a "tough Question"?
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heuertwo
Posts:205
| | 09/13/2007 6:37 AM |
Alert | Who were God's parents?
Before God was here, where was he/she/it?
What if God was one of us?
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Java Lover
Posts:0
| | 09/13/2007 9:51 AM |
Alert | Posted By heuertwo on 09/13/2007 6:37 AM
Who were God's parents?
Before God was here, where was he/she/it?
In all existence, from all eternity, there has been and always will be only one God. God was never created.
To comprehend the notion of God's existence we must use human concepts to speak of God: "without beginning or end"; "eternal"; "infinite", etc. The Bible says that He has always existed: " . . . Before the mountains were born or you brought forth the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God." (Psalm 90:2).
He has no beginning or end. He simply has always been.
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NEZv2.1SP2
Posts:0
| | 09/13/2007 10:03 AM |
Alert | How can Christians say stuff like the above, but when presented with the Big Bang Theory...they demand to know what there was before the bang.
Um...it was infinite density... | | | |
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Trogdor!
Posts:294
| | 09/13/2007 10:08 AM |
Alert | JL,
Am I correct in assuming that when you say "My beliefs encourage study and validating," you're really just saying that you study the bible? That's not exactly a non-biased reference. | |
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Jason
Posts:3378
| | 09/13/2007 10:19 AM |
Alert | Posted By NEZv2.1SP2 on 09/13/2007 10:03 AM
How can Christians say stuff like the above, but when presented with the Big Bang Theory...they demand to know what there was before the bang.
Um...it was infinite density...
Because science seeks to explain things and provide proof. How can they provide proof for something that violates basic laws of physics? You can't have something from nothing. | |
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NEZv2.1SP2
Posts:0
| | 09/13/2007 10:23 AM |
Alert | | Nobody claims it came from nothing. Please do your AstroPhysics homework before you address me. You just looked incredibly stupid. | | | |
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Java Lover
Posts:0
| | 09/13/2007 10:31 AM |
Alert | Trogdor ~ There are many sources outside the Bible that validate it. There are also people that have set out to disprove the Bible and have converted because they could not disprove. For example, Evidence that Demands a Verdict by Josh McDowell. He was a law student that set out to disprove the Bible to his girlfriend. Along the way he became a Christian.
Nez ~ I'm not sure what your question is because I obviously have not had that question, because before the earth was created God existed. | | | |
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Jason
Posts:3378
| | 09/13/2007 10:44 AM |
Alert | Posted By NEZv2.1SP2 on 09/13/2007 10:23 AM
Nobody claims it came from nothing. Please do your AstroPhysics homework before you address me. You just looked incredibly stupid.
No, try again. | |
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Jason
Posts:3378
| | 09/13/2007 4:51 PM |
Alert | It is statements like these from Dawkins that make him lose credibility:
If subtle, nuanced religion predominated, the world would be a better place and I would have written a different book. The melancholy truth is that decent, understated religion is numerically negligible. Most believers echo Robertson, Falwell or Haggard, Osama bin Laden or Ayatollah Khomeini. These are not straw men. The world needs to face them, and my book does so.
Here he makes the obviously straw man argument that all religion should be abolished because a few men distort the truth. What they do has absolutely no bearing on what any random Christian off the street believes. If, as he would have you believe, most Christians were fundamentalists, we'd see mass numbers of abortion clinic bombings, for example. He must have picked up a reality distortion field from Steve Jobs.
No, please, do not mistake passion, which can change its mind, for fundamentalism, which never will. Passion for passion, an evangelical Christian and I may be evenly matched. But we are not equally fundamentalist. The true scientist, however passionately he may “believe”, in evolution for example, knows exactly what would change his mind: evidence! The fundamentalist knows that nothing will.
More distortion. Terrorists and fundamentalists seek to demean and belittle their opponent. They lose rationalism for radical emotional arguments (see: "The God Delusion"). Whereas Islamic terrorists strap bombs to themselves, Dawkins arms a group of people with hateful demeaning words. Distortion of the truth. He is the very definition of fundamentalist.
I too believe in people. I believe that, given proper encouragement to think, and given the best information available, people will courageously cast aside celestial comfort blankets and lead intellectually fulfilled, emotionally liberated lives.
Again, more distortion. God is not there for people's comfort. He seems to know no bounds in his distortion of what God and religion is truly for.
Source: How dare you call me a fundamentalist | |
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joe_2007
Posts:83
| | 09/13/2007 5:01 PM |
Alert | Posted By BeerLeague2 on 09/12/2007 6:38 PM
Has anyone read this book by Richard Dawkins? I'm currently reading it and it's quite amazing stuff.
I'd love to discuss it with others...
BeerLeague,
I will read Dawkins and you read Lee Strobel's Case for the Creator. Then we'll compare notes.
That's fair, right?
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karldotcom
Posts:29
| | 09/13/2007 6:11 PM |
Alert | | I will pray for you all. | | | |
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Trogdor!
Posts:294
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Jason
Posts:3378
| | 09/13/2007 7:15 PM |
Alert | Wow, that's exactly the kind of self-righteous garbage that I can't stand. Don't pray for me, don't even consider it. You people act like it does any good!
 Why does it hurt you? Why does someone caring about someone else sicken you?
This is just another example of taking the popular opinion about religion, which is false, and acting hurt... | |
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BeerLeague2
Posts:111
| | 09/13/2007 8:11 PM |
Alert | Darn, I really wanted to discuss the book with people who have read it.
Moving on..... | | | |
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EEE
Posts:374
| | 09/13/2007 8:44 PM |
Alert | LOL, it's funny to me how atheist don't want to be associated with "religion", but where do they start a thread to discuss one of their books????????
Anyway, here is a great video on Richard Dawkins
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QERyh9YYEis
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Yeah, it's true- He allowed the fall of man/
But He used it now to exalt the Lamb/
The Lord, who's wise, permits existence of sin/
to be glorified in His forgiveness to men/ | |
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