Reading "The God Delusion" by Richard Dawkins (Finally)

[LargeKingCat]

Originally Posted by GCSTroop

I like Richard Dawkins and have read most of his books but, I have to admit, I didn't have any problems reading them. I will say that the books are indeed written at a higher-level of reading than your average Christian theology book. Surprise! Surprise!

My biggest problem with The God Delusion was that it reminded me so much of Bertrand Russell's Why I'm Not A Christian that I essentially thought it was a re-write. It was not an extraordinarily original thought process but, rather, a re-popularization of older sentiments with a more modern day focal point. Still good. Still interesting. Just not the original work of art everyone made it out to be.

The Blind Watchmaker was a book that really opened my eyes to the simplicities of how evolution actually works, the awesome power of what natural selection is, and how multi-faceted and integral that particular line of thought can be. It is, in my opinion, his best work. If there's anything by Dawkins one should read, it's that one.

I agree too (sounding like a yes-Man) Dawkins is a gifted writer, a great intellectual and someone with whom I have learned much.
I read the God Delusion after reading Hitchen's God is not Great I enjoyed Dawkins more, as Hitchens spent a good part of the book seeming to promote aetheism as a religion as opposed to just discussing the inherant evils of Christianity (again)
What amazes me is how the Christian Community is too often belittling and criticizing Dawkins, when they have not even read what he has written. ( Kind of like my post of Darwin) I think he writes at a level that is too intellectual for the average run of the mill Fundy anyway.

[rifleman]

In some obtuse way, this all reminds me of that image of the Coke™ bottle that fell on the tribesman, out of the sky...

The Gods Must Be Crazy - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

(...and all the "quasi-religious" problems the bottle brought the tribesmen, trying to "own" it, and then trying to get rid of it off the edge of the earth. The truths that the Botswanian tribesman hero sees on his journeys are metaphorically intriguing to say the least.)

Some things simply cannot (or will not, damn you!!!) be comprehended by a mind with purposefully limited exposure to the larger paradigm, to a higher level of understanding, to decades of accumulated modern knowledge and to a mindset of exploratory and critical thinking.

It's just so much easier to stand pat on the old ways, the old understandings and the millenias-old chants. It's comfort food for the mind, despite the fact that, like a constant diet of fries and donuts, it's murderous to your (mental) health in the end.

It's also become de-rigueur for the denialist fundies to viciously but falsely denigrate any and all of the intellectual movement's spokesman hierarchy. Any such spokesman for enlightenment would have to be literally without any faults, any recognizable "hoyty-toyty" speech styles, any past gaffs or social errors, and any hand or facial movements, to be free of the garbage-seekers' unfounded criticisms, since those with a scavenger mentality will stop at nothing to demonize the message in such presentations.

For some reason, similar problems or total absence of academic credibility, education or experience on the part of some noisy denialist Christian are conveniently overlooked. "Oh, Dr. Do-Well is a known scholar in such things!". Yep, with his cereal-box-top certification from a deserted gas station PO Box # in the Australian outback. ("Please send your donation today to support this important ministry!") Fur shur!

It's entirely predictable that this new age of on-line and bookish enlightenment will never cease, since these new-age messengers of truth and enlightenment will never go away. Their wealth of background information, always improving and expanding, will also never diminish, and their impact on the population of always better educated, better exposed children will grow, not subside. That alone will engender an entire new population of educated and fearless thinkers, and the old-school of classical embedded and suppressive religion will die off. Hey; it's an inevitable process of social evolution, unstoppable and all-encompassing.

Thank God for such books and minds as Dawkin's and Hitchen's! Not to mention the writings of that anti-Christ Darwin's!! (mass shuddering in the congregation..)

This is a battle between spear-wielding superstitious tribesmen and a modern army with "Gatling guns" loaded with truth bullets. The outcome is wholly predictable, but... take it as you will from here.

Peace, and enlightenment to you all!

[KCfromNC]

Originally Posted by trounds2

No, Dawkins is clearly not a philosopher. His basic premise is juvenile, and that cannot be dressed up with a million notes, and footnotes.

So says the guy who's posts are nothing but personal attacks. Let's see some specific objections, if you can manage it.

[catman]

"[J]uvenile"! That is astounding.