Tuesday, November 21, 2006

God Delusion

I've been hearing this guy's name mentioned a lot lately. He recently wrote a book called "God Delusion" and has been on the talk show book promoting circuit. (I think I saw him on the Colbert Report or Daily Show). Anyway, I was checking Reddit and found this link by Dawkins where he is sort of explaining his "hostility" towards religion. It is an interesting read, though I certainly don't agree with it all. You can almost hear his voice rising as you continue reading the article, and I suspect that this hostility is a side effect of his always having to defend his point of view. I would be willing to wager that he's been attacked by fundamentalists and that would probably explain the hostility better. If I have time, I think it would be an interesting experiment to re-write his article and switch the wording around... Instead of "Why I am hostile toward religion" write it to say "Why I am hostile toward science". I bet it would be an interesting read.
Well, I hope he will be featured on cspan's BookTV soon.

2 comments:

Seven Star Hand said...

Hello Cyen and all,

Here's my two bits on this intractable debate. Hope you and others can appreciate my efforts to provide a key to a true solution for humanity's seemingly never-ending cycle of struggle and despair.

Analyzing the Creator Debate

Did you ever consider that atheism arose because certain people saw that religious characterizations about the nature of an omnipotent "God" were seriously flawed and then concluded that religion and the Creator were the same things? This is the exact same conclusion at the base of religious beliefs; namely that the Creator and religion are inseparable. Consequently, both atheists and religious followers are arguing over a flawed assumption without considering that other possibilities negate the common core conclusion of both groups. These arguments are actually over religion and whether it represents a reliable model of reality. The answer to this question is of course not. Religion is not only flawed, it is purposely deceptive! Though atheists are certainly sincere in their conclusions, the fact remains that they and religious followers are locked in a debate that cannot be won by either side because both base their positions upon whether the same flawed premise is the truth. In order for this debate to conclude with a truthful answer, a greater level of discernment is required.

One apt clarifying question is, if someone tells lies about you, does that negate you or make you a liar or a lie? Certainly, the image cast about you would be a false one, but that is their image, not the real you. Consequently, faulty religious assertions about the Creator of this universe do not negate the existence of a Creator. Considering the possibility that this universe is not by chance leaves the door open to how it arose, which leads us to seek what could have created and maintained it. Since neither religion nor science has yet adequately answered this question, it is safe to conclude that those who argue about the Creator based on either are most certainly wrong about one or more aspects. Therefore, another point of view and additional knowledge are required.

Read More...

Peace...

cyen said...

Hello Seven star hand,
Thanks for the post. I read through and I'm scratching my head for a lot of it. :) I'm not sure what you are trying to say... It's obvious you have studied and read lots on this but I disagree with many of your points, but that's ok. That's what blogs are for. I also see that you have cut and pasted this comment from a post on your blog, and you have several links that eventually lead to a self promotion of a book you are selling. Hmm... this comment almost smells like spam. But In the interest of fairness I'll leave this comment here - in spite of my disagreement. It would be interesting to debate you but this is not the forum for a debate.