Monday, October 01, 2007
The march of the militant atheists!
Are atheists the unsung heroes of the modern age? You may have read in the papers that 'Darwin's rottweiler' Richard Dawkins is spearheading a campaign in America to trumpet the voice of the nation's atheists who are seemingly downtrodden by the religious majority. Check out what John Brooke has to say about Dawkins in his podcast. What contribution would an 'atheist bloc' make to society anyway? Does religion still have an important public role bearing in mind the Buddhist protests in Burma as an example?
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Hmm very interesting podcast... I agree with some points but absolutely oppose others. for example, the idea that because religion 'works' for some should strenghten its case for being true is fundementally wrong isnt it?
ReplyDeleteAlso, has Dawkins ever claimed Darwin was an atheist in the same mould as Dawkins himself? I am not so sure.
I agree, though, that Dawkins does tend to put all religion into the extreme or fundemental camps, which simply is not true for most religious people.
Some American Evangelical creationist ideas that God is constantly conjuring up new species is of course, in my and I would think most christians opinion, not mainstream christian belief in what the doctrine of creation is. and dawkins is guilty of sometimes confusing the two.
What I want to know is how one can read Nietzsche and still think that the morality which Dawkins et al. uses to criticize religion is not in fact a product of Christianity.
ReplyDeletePerhaps Dawkins hasn't read Nietzsche?
Just picking up on your first point, Jason. I suppose that argument can only be defended if what we consider ‘true’ is determined by use; if someone finds religious belief useful then, in that sense, it is true for them. But that kind of logic opens the door to all kinds of loopy theories about the world which have to be counted as ‘true’ just because someone believes them. Then again, am I in any position to declare a belief batty? Can I say anything? Must I remain in silence?
ReplyDeleteto me, it is an issue of language. Truth - to me - should be objective, not at all subjective. It is true to say humans require water to live. It is true to say those who never sleep, will die. I believe it is certainly not true to say God created the earth. It is an opinion to say such.
ReplyDeleteof course, what we are talking about is determining if something is true. to me, to say something is true requires proof - objective, so far unfalsified, imperical proof. As this is not possible with religious belief , I belief it is impossible to ever claim that belief true (or, indeed, false)