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Dawkins: The God Delusion »
Posted by: RickyDawkins 2 years, 5 months agoYahweh, the God of the Old Testament, is "arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction. Jealous and proud of it, a petty, unjust, unforgiving control freak, a vindictive bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser, a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously male
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RickyDawkins
Atheism can be either the rejection of theism, or the position that deities do not exist. In the broadest sense, it is the absence of ...
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Comments: 519
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RickyDawkins
May 10, 2007, 11:50 a.m.While he respects Einsteinian religion, he shows no respect for conventional religion. Dawkins maintains that religion is given a privileged and undeserved immunity against criticism, quoting Douglas Adams to illustrate the point
"Religion has certain ideas at the heart of it which we call sacred or holy or whatever. What it means is, 'Here is an idea or a notion that you're not allowed to say anything bad about; you're just not. Why not? Because you're ot. If someone votes for a party that you don't agree, you're free to argue about it as much as you like; everybody will have an argument but nobody feels aggrieved by it. But on the other hand, if somebody says 'I mustn't move a light switch on a Saturday', you say 'I respect that."
Dawkins lists examples of religion being given privileged status: the ease of gaining conscientious objector status; the use of euphemisms for religious conflicts; various exemptions from the law; and the Muhammad cartoon controversy
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trnscndr
May 10, 2007, 12:41 p.m.Yes, the Old Testament God gives Jesus a bad name. That they combine them is to Jesus' detriment. I were Jesus, I would distance myself. Of course, many said, including Nietzsche, that there had been such a God; Jesus was born and humanized him gave him kind a heart; then religion killed him (Jesus/God) and remade a statue of him, reviving his angry, old characteristics.
This is really the symbolic basis of Also Sprach Zarathustra. Interesting scientists and liberal Christians in the 60's alike came to agreement that God HAD lived, but was now dead, thus "God is Dead" billboards were commissioned all over the country, ironically across the street from major churches.
What people don't admit, is their God is manmade, rather than man being God-made. If there is a God, still alive, he just laughs at his silly children for fearing him; much like children have this inhuman vision of their parents; like they don't ****** or talk dirty or even have sex organs.
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samsara15
May 10, 2007, 12:50 p.m.Morality has nothing to do with religion.
Ideology will always cause humans to kill each other, quite often over minor differences in doctrine, with or without religion. That's what humans do.
That comment made, religion does do a lot of harm, Dawkins is mainly right, only wrong in a few small details.
Einsteinian religion is the only kind of religion that merits respect.
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trnscndr
May 10, 2007, 12:53 p.m.PS-Ricky or whatever your name is, you wrote me a million atheist dogma letters; I replied very politely and intelligently despite having heard nothing new (kinda like talking to Jehovah's witnesses). I have heard it all. I teach Philosophy and Critical Thinking and people act like I don't know anything about Dawkins, Neitzche, Sagan and send me derivative, third rate atheist dogma in an attempt to evangelize me. Then they get mad when I don't "convert" from someone who is not qualified to judge the existence or non-existence of God, to one who pretends he is.
In your case, Ricky, you then decided to BLOCK me after I suggested you do an original, objective book review of Dawkins, "The God Delusion", forcing this diatribe into this thread.
Thanks Rev Dawkins!
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trnscndr
May 10, 2007, 1:22 p.m.I once participated in an atheist forum just to see if they were any different than those they opposed. What I discovered was NOT pretty. They threatened to crucify me for failing to agree that "God doesn't exist". The vitriol was impressive, much like Baptists when I told them the Old Testament was vile.
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Amazing1
May 10, 2007, 2 p.m.I don't think anyone can answer the questions regarding our existence with any real certainty or proof. For me, I know that salvation, enlightenment or peace in my soul do not and cannot come from organized religion.
Throughout time and throughout the world there have been and are reverends, pastors, priests, mullahs and rabbis who have endeavored to build the greatest temple, church, cathedral or synagogue and claimed to be the holiest and the closest to god. They have proven themselves and their converts are often times hypocrites and that no one has a lock on God.
That said, there is surely wonder and miracles in the smell of the earth after a rain or a magnificent sunset. That force, whatever it is, is manifested and appreciated best in private moments and not some manmade building. The reverence engendered by these miracles is as well a commandment to live with moral integrity and to listen to the still, small voice within. Real spirituality.
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DeadXXXManXXXTalkin
May 10, 2007, 2:48 p.m.from a post --((Yes, the Old Testament God gives Jesus a bad name. That they combine them is to Jesus' detriment. I were Jesus, I would distance myself))
I think it is fair to say that without the Torah and the Prophets, which I think Jesus knew backwards and forewards, Jesus as he was could not have existed.
Here is a saying that might be helpful, and may or may not be mine, I am old and forget:
'With religion one starts in confusion; without religion, one starts from scratch'
Quite a few commentators refer to the bible as 'the continual building of the understanding of a people.'
One of the problems of understanding what's in the bible is that so many have been so willing, yet woefully unqualified, to explain it to people.
It has always been thus. The more one understands, the less one knows.
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CharacterCounts
May 10, 2007, 2:58 p.m.I have never understood the hatred athiests have toward Christians. It's really sad. They claim they don't believe in God, but get so violently upset when others do choose to believe.
I searched all of the worlds religions and Christianity is the only one that made sence to me. No other religion could explain how life began in the first place. When someone can explain the human eye to me without the Bible's view of creation, I'll listen.
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RickyDawkins
May 10, 2007, 2:59 p.m.Well, maybe that is because we don't hate Christians!
We disdain naive irrational stinkin thinkin!
The bible is a culprit here.
Wise up kid.
No God.
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RickyDawkins
May 10, 2007, 3:21 p.m.It was a pig walking on his hind legs.
Yes, it was Squealer. A little awkwardly, as though not
quite used to supporting his bulk in that position, but
with perfect balance, he was strolling across the yard. And
a moment later, out from the door of the farmhouse came a
long file of pigs, all walking on their hind legs. Some
did it better than others, one or two were even a trifle
unsteady and looked as though they would have liked the
support of a stick, but every one of them made his way right
round the yard successfully. And finally there was a
tremendous baying of dogs and a shrill crowing from the
black cockerel, and out came Napoleon himself,
majestically upright, casting haughty glances from side to
side, and with his dogs gambolling round him.
He carried a whip in his trotter.
There was a deadly silence. Amazed, terrified, huddling
together, the animals watched the long line of pigs march
slowly round the yard.
http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks01/0100011.txt
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kiki5711
May 10, 2007, 3:23 p.m."when one person suffers from a delusion it is called insanity. When many people suffer from a delusion it is called religion."
he he love it
my friend told me that religion is good for some people and not good for others. I told him that during the time some people turn to religon it's because they don't see anything better to help them in their lives at that moment, but a nice fancy dinner and a winning lottery ticket could very well have the same result.
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oneironaut420
May 10, 2007, 3:28 p.m.YAWN...the trite, tired old "why do atheists hate Christians for believing" martyrism.
Well, here's a news flash for you: Atheists don't hate Christians for believing! So you can stop worrying. 8)
However, having seen what happens to atheists in Christian theocracies, they do get angry when people attempt to force the government to legislate based upon Christian dogma.
Thomas Jefferson said it best: "History I believe furnishes no example of a priest-ridden people maintaining a free civil government."
If you thought a group of people were essentially trying to take away your basic civil rights, such as the right to be free from government-sponsored religion, wouldn't you be a little upset, and wouldn't it only be human to focus your anger on the group you felt was doing this to you?
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Poulenc
May 10, 2007, 3:34 p.m.Religion exists to reconcile people to the Big Unknown, which is death; to provide a sense that their lives mean something; to offer transcendent experience; and to provide some sense that there is order and individual control in a universe conspicuously lacking both.
It's a tough act not to follow. But education, a love of art, self-exploration and that of the essential, or at least an appetite for the non-pietistic or non-sentimental, should help set one on the, er, upward path.
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RickyDawkins
May 10, 2007, 3:42 p.m.http://dangerousintersection.org/?p=1203#comments
"It was, of course, a lie what you read about my religious convictions, a lie which is being systematically repeated. I do not believe in a personal God and I have never denied this but have expressed it clearly. If something is in me which can be called religious then it is the unbounded admiration for the structure of the world so far as our science can reveal it."
ALBERT EINSTEIN
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RickyDawkins
May 10, 2007, 3:43 p.m."I am a deeply religious nonbeliever. This is a somewhat new kind of religion.
I have never imputed to Nature a purpose or a goal, or anything that could be understood as anthropomorphic. What I see in Nature is a magnificent structure that we can comprehend only very imperfectly, and that must fill a thinking person with a feeling of humility. This is a genuinely religious feeling that has nothing to do with mysticism."
-EINSTEIN
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RickyDawkins
May 10, 2007, 3:45 p.m."It was, of course, a lie what you read about my religious convictions, a lie which is being systematically repeated. I do not believe in a personal God and I have never denied this but have expressed it clearly. If something is in me which can be called religious then it is the unbounded admiration for the structure of the world so far as our science can reveal it."
ALBERT EINSTEIN
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RickyDawkins
May 10, 2007, 3:47 p.m.EINSTEIN SPECIFICALLY SAID HE DOES NOT BELIEVE IN GOD!
"It was, of course, a lie what you read about my religious convictions, a lie which is being systematically repeated. I do not believe in a personal God and I have never denied this but have expressed it clearly. If something is in me which can be called religious then it is the unbounded admiration for the structure of the world so far as our science can reveal it."
ALBERT EINSTEIN
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samsara15
May 10, 2007, 3:54 p.m.Einstein and God - a lot of other issues
http://www.ctinquiry.org/publications/reflectio...
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espse
May 10, 2007, 4:01 p.m.Somebody show me a repeatable experiment I can do to prove the existance of life after death, soul, god, demons, angles, teenage Jesus, purgatory, heaven, hell, or any other imaginary pile of steaming bulls..t. If you do I can guarantee you a million dollars and a nobel prize. But you can't can you.
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CharacterCounts
May 10, 2007, 4:20 p.m.Why is it that athiests hate everyone who even speaks of religion? They scream for tollerance but will not offer it themselves. That's sure to win over a lot of people.
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ListenUP
May 10, 2007, 4:29 p.m.I CAN. But you are not worthy enough to receive this proof. You are too evil. If you believe in me strong enough, I will show you , but YOU can't.
I will give you a glimpse however. The only problem is that it is not repeatable unless reincarnation happens:
Kill yourself and observe the majority of the elements of which you seek proof.
By the way, why do you need proof of angles? Taking trig?
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infidell2space
May 10, 2007, 4:52 p.m.Charactercounts,do you have some examples to back this assertion up? (((Why is it that athiests hate everyone who even speaks of religion? They scream for tollerance but will not offer it themselves. That's sure to win over a lot of people.)))
I've read the god delusion and both personal experince and studies assure me that he's far more right then wrong.
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blogicalmind
May 10, 2007, 5:10 p.m.Atheism is not a belief system. You described the word and then stated that there are religions which are atheistic.
"Eastern" is not a religion or belief system or anything of the sort. There are many religions that are eastern.
Did you mean to make a point with your comment?
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RickyDawkins
May 10, 2007, 6:27 p.m.Read the book. Then commence YOUR bashing.
http://www.richarddawkins.net/
He is a good guy. You are upset at the message. Remember that. Do not punish the messenger.
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RickyDawkins
May 10, 2007, 6:44 p.m.Actually, Earth is home to over 10,000 DISTINCT religions.
And HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF DENOMINATIONS!
http://www.adherents.com/adh_faq.html#howmany
"The 2001 edition, successor to his 1983 first edition, which took a decade to compile, identifies 10,000 distinct religions, of which 150 have 1 million or more followers. Within Christianity, he counts 33,830 denominations."
33,830 Christian denominations alone.
http://www.adherents.com/misc/WCE.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_religions
Christian Reconstructionism
Christian Science
Eschatology (religious movement)
Church of Christ, Instrumental
Church of the Last Testament
Concerned Christians
Congregation of Mary Immaculate Queen
Destiny Church, New Zealand
Divine Science
Doukhobor
Endeavor Academy
Eternal Grace
Evangelical Covenant Church of America
Evangelical Free Church of America (EFCA)
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