Do you know Dr. Dawkins?

[Abstruce]

Dr. Dawkins is a professor of science at Oxford University. He makes a case for the Insanity of Christianity, and how scary it is that there are many people in the world and the U.S. who believe the mythology of Judaism is true fact.

 

I argue that it is Insane to allow special interest groups with religious views run our government. George Bush is one such case and if the money from the religious special interest groups continues then I for one am sure they will fulfill their prophecies by starting or causing a Nuclear war at the expense of the World.

 

Remember Heavens Gate, Waco, Jim Jones, Pat Robertson, Timothy Mc Veigh, and the list goes on. How soon we forget.

 

Free thinkers are the minority sadly to say and we lack community. I appeal to all who are free from Religious Prejudice to educate others about the history of the Insane, Immoral, Psychotic properties of their Religious faith. I argue it with everyone I meet. I will not be silent and I will not accept any 1st century Religious fundamentalism to contradict science.

 

Please watch the videos and share them with your friends.

 

Enjoy.

 

These videos are on a site called youtube that has a diverse large content of videos, computers that block Adult/Mature Content will not be able to access.

 

 

Part one

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3PqdCHBT_rU&search=virus%20of%20faith

 

Part two

YouTube - Broadcast Yourself. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGeL1yFeK6I&search=atheism

 

Part three

YouTube - Broadcast Yourself. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AB2vmj8eyMk&search=atheism

 

This is an exelent documentary on the history of Religion.

 

[ame]http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6410112404402873027&q=naked+truth[/ame]

 

O and God Bless. LOL

[Pyrotex]

Dr. Richard Dawkins...

Is there something you want to say about Richard Dawkins or his books? Is there some point of view you wish to discuss?

 

We prefer that threads, especially those that are potentially controversial, begin with some statement of point of view, or a specific question, rather than a list of links, however fascinating they may be. Just a paragraph introducing the thread, why you think it's interesting, perhaps a summary of what the links are about. Okay?

 

PS: my computer at work blocks all three links for Adult/Mature Content. You might begin by saying something about that.

[Abstruce]

Is there something you want to say about Richard Dawkins or his books? Is there some point of view you wish to discuss?

 

Let me know if my edit is acceptable.

[Pyrotex]

Let me know if my edit is acceptable.

Yes! :D Excellent, and thank you.

For the record, some of Richard Dawkins' best books are:

*River Out of Eden: A Darwinian View of Life

*Climbing Mount Improbable

*The Selfish Gene

*The Blind Watchmaker: Why the Evidence of Evolution Reveals a Universe Without Design

The Ancestor's Tale: A Pilgrimage to the Dawn of Evolution

*A Devil's Chaplain : Reflections on Hope, Lies, Science, and Love

Unweaving the Rainbow: Science, Delusion and the Appetite for Wonder

The Extended Phenotype : The Long Reach of the Gene

 

Those with an asterisk*, I have personally read.

[Michaelangelica]

from Chapter 2: The God Hypothesis.

 

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, philicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sado-masochistic, capriciously malevolent bully.

. . .

Do those people who hold up the Bible as an inspiration to moral rectitude, have the slightest notion of what is actually written in it? The following offences merit the death penalty, according to Leviticus 20: Cursing your parents; committing adultery; making love to your stepmother or your daughter-in-law; homosexuality; marrying a woman and her daughter; bestiality, and to add injury to insult, the unfortunate beast is to be killed too; you also get executed, of course, for working on the Sabbath.

 

The point is made again and again throughout the Old Testament. In Numbers 15, the Children of Israel found a man in the wilderness gathering sticks on the forbidden day. They arrested him and then asked God what to do with him. As it turned out, God was in no mood for half measures that day, and the Lord said unto Moses, 'The man shall surely be put to death. All the congregation shall stone him with stones without the camp. And all the congregation brought him without the camp and stoned him with stones, and he died.'

Background Briefing - 26 November 2006  - Richard Dawkins and God

[catholiboy]

from Chapter 2: The God Hypothesis.

 

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, philicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sado-masochistic, capriciously malevolent bully.

. . .

Do those people who hold up the Bible as an inspiration to moral rectitude, have the slightest notion of what is actually written in it? The following offences merit the death penalty, according to Leviticus 20: Cursing your parents; committing adultery; making love to your stepmother or your daughter-in-law; homosexuality; marrying a woman and her daughter; bestiality, and to add injury to insult, the unfortunate beast is to be killed too; you also get executed, of course, for working on the Sabbath.

 

The point is made again and again throughout the Old Testament. In Numbers 15, the Children of Israel found a man in the wilderness gathering sticks on the forbidden day. They arrested him and then asked God what to do with him. As it turned out, God was in no mood for half measures that day, and the Lord said unto Moses, 'The man shall surely be put to death. All the congregation shall stone him with stones without the camp. And all the congregation brought him without the camp and stoned him with stones, and he died.'

 

 

 

This will be controversial for die hard christians but, what the hell...

 

There is another possibility. A possibility suggested by a man who has been labelled the biggest heretic to date. He said that there were two Gods - an evil Old Testament God, and a Good New Testament God.

[catholiboy]

Abstruce,

 

Does a perfect political character have to be a free thinker, according to your definition? Or just anything besides die-hard religious?

 

It all depends on the politics of religion, my friend; and that is a dangerous and untrustworthy subject for religious leaders...the possibility that they have simply become political leaders.:eek: :eek:

[maikeru]

I've read parts of some of Dawkins' books, including his famous The Selfish Gene. And I read about him in the NY Times recently, being involved in a debate over science and religion. Sometimes I feel like he comes off more as a scientific zealot than an honestly concerned scientist. But I don't deny he's a brilliant scientist.

[InfiniteNow]

I do believe the term "scapegoat" and "socicioideological pressure valve" come to mind when thinking of Dr. D...

[Pyrotex]

I do believe the term "scapegoat" and "socicioideological pressure valve" come to mind when thinking of Dr. D...

Indeed.

 

I admire Dawkins. He is so articulate and persuasive in his books and other writings. He is one of those rare folks I refer to as a "fun read". Daniel C. Dennett is another.

 

His anti-religion stance does sound rather heated and some of his statements could have been better thought out, but in general, I agree with him. The damage done to our world and our societies in the name of one religion or another is ghastly and heart-wrenching. Even now, mass slaughter is taking place because "God wants someone to do it". It is about time that someone speak up against this tragedy. Dawkins is a good start.

[catholiboy]

I appraise your altruism.

 

However, I will make clear as I have done before is to do with the politics of religion.

It is this which needs to be sorted out.

[Abstruce]

Indeed.

 

I admire Dawkins. He is so articulate and persuasive in his books and other writings. He is one of those rare folks I refer to as a "fun read". Daniel C. Dennett is another.

 

His anti-religion stance does sound rather heated and some of his statements could have been better thought out, but in general, I agree with him. The damage done to our world and our societies in the name of one religion or another is ghastly and heart-wrenching. Even now, mass slaughter is taking place because "God wants someone to do it". It is about time that someone speak up against this tragedy. Dawkins is a good start.

 

Excellent choice of words!!!!!

 

Dr. Dawkins has a new book out "The God Delusion" I have it on my must read list.

 

I also belong to ACA (Atheist Community of Austin) they have meetings with about 15-20 in attendance, the sad thing is that I never get time to go meet with them.

 

The reason I bring this up is I think it is almost funny that there is no large organizations supporting Atheistic viewpoints.

 

Yet there are mega originations supporting religious folklore.

 

What I am trying to establish in my ramblings?

 

When I look at all Religion it comes to me as common sense that the whole thing is made up. It is so obvious on many levels.

 

Now I look at the United States having a possible 90% of the population that worships one God or another.

 

I ask why is there so small a percentage of people who can decipher fact from reality? Why am I like a square peg trying to fit in a round hole?

 

This brings me to something AE said.

 

"Few people are capable of expressing with equanimity opinions which differ from the prejudices of their social environment. Most people are even incapable of forming such opinions."

 

JQ

[Pyrotex]

Background Briefing - 26*November*2006* - Richard Dawkins and God

Thank you ever ever ever ever so much for this link. Fascinating and illuminating. I must get Dawkin's new book.

 

I am now a "tooth fairy agnostic" !!! :beer:

[Pyrotex]

...I think it is almost funny that there is no large organizations supporting Atheistic viewpoints. ...JQ

There are a few out there.

I even joined a couple.

BUT... many atheistic orgs have their own problems. They are "fronts" if you will, for other ideas and ideologies. I get the Skeptical Inquirer magazine from whatever they're called (too lazy to look it up), and they are by and large, rational and intelligent.

[catholiboy]

Be careful in your choice of words, Abstruce.

 

Is it really made up, and is it really so goddamned obvious? And if so, who are you to say that this means there is no possibility of a God not existing?

 

Decipher fact from reality... ???

 

I fon't know who AE is, but I'll immediately reply: don't you consider it a possibility that the status quo, as it were, may have been formed by intelligent, thinking people? Look at the greatest of scientists in history, and you will see that none of them deny the possibility of a supernatural being existing. Einstein, Hawking, Newton...

[maikeru]

His anti-religion stance does sound rather heated and some of his statements could have been better thought out, but in general, I agree with him. The damage done to our world and our societies in the name of one religion or another is ghastly and heart-wrenching. Even now, mass slaughter is taking place because "God wants someone to do it". It is about time that someone speak up against this tragedy. Dawkins is a good start.

 

There are terrible things which are done in the name of many causes. Religion may be one, but power, lust, greed, madness, the cult of personality, and many other aspects of human nature find their expression through unfortunate methods. It's rare that "God wants someone to do it" for religion alone, unless there are also politics and spoils involved.

[Pyrotex]

...Is it really made up, and is it really so goddamned obvious? And if so, who are you to say that this means there is no possibility of a God not existing?...you will see that none of them deny the possibility of a supernatural being existing. Einstein, Hawking, Newton...

The logic is rather easy. Just replace the word "God" with Jove, Mithra, Baal, Dionysius, Athena, Umma Gumma, Zeus, Bachus, or any of hundreds of other gods, and you would have no problem at all seeing that they were "made up". Piece of cake.

 

Einstein and Hawking both published that they do not believe in "personal gods" are not "religious". Their quotes have been taken out of context by "true believers". Newton DID believe in God, and did one of the most serious researches on the Bible performed until centuries later. He found it to be so internally inconsistent and vague as to be unusable as a scripture. He continued to attend church services after that, but wrote very little more about his beliefs.

 

Also, let's turn your logic around a bit: Einstein never denied the possibility of the existence of little, furry green unicorns from Mars. True statement. You cannot take this as evidence for the existence of little, furry green unicorns from Mars, without making yourself look just a tad silly. Replace the words "little, furry green unicorns from Mars" with "god" and the logic does not get any better.