Tuesday, October 08, 2002
Dale: If Richard Dawkins was any dumber, you'd have to water him.
This is dumber than a box of hair. [Thanks to Doug Sirman for that turn of phrase].
No, really. If Dawkins applied the same intellectual rigor to the study of science that he does to religion, he'd be a phrenologist. Or he'd be waxing flatulent about the glories of phlogiston or alchemy. Or he'd be touting whatever two-bit flavor of the month version of scientific huckerism that happened to be on the ascendant. Hmm. Come to think of it...Nah. Another day.
Once again, he demonstrates his consistently anencephalic "insights" into religious belief. Here's my favorite excerpt:
"The word atheism sounds negative; let me call it rationalism. It is a rational view of the world where you stand up proudly, in your humanity, you look life straight in the face, you look the universe straight in the face, you do your level best to understand it, to understand why you exist, what the universe is about, you recognise that when you die that's it, and therefore life is very, very precious and you devote your life to making the world a better place, to leading a good life so when you die you can say to yourself I have led a good life. Now, that seems to me to be a worthwhile goal to put in place of the medieval superstition which is religion. Belief in God doesn't have to be a bad thing, but I think it's a very demeaning thing to the human mind to believe in a falsehood, especially as the truth about the universe is so immensely exciting."
Sure it is. What's a "good life," Dick? Who's your yardstick--Charles Manson or Mother Teresa? Probably the former, since he managed to liberate himself quite effectively from Christian brainwashing...
Yes, Dick, a nihilistic world view in which nothing matters is "so immensely exciting" I need to empty my rapidly-filling kidneys. This is such nonsense it's not funny. Truth be told, the rationalist worldview's attitude towards human life sits on the spectrum running from irritated impatience to Belsen and the gulags. Human life is valuable only so long as it has utility, isn't a burden and doesn't get in the way. Drs. Singer and Kevorkian will be happy to explain it to you. Stalin and Hitler have better ideas for the lives of workers and Herrenvolk. Not to mention the kulaks and untermenschen. Good old Joe and Adolf! Two more enlightened souls liberated from the brainwashed prisons of Orthodoxy and Catholicism! Yay! Over 50 Million Served! Right into their graves.
We need only to look at the secularized West for a foretaste of Dawkins' utopian vision. The preciousness of human life is nowhere present. Abortions by the million, families shattered by the quest for self-fulfillment, parents shuffled off to die--all of this follows in the wake of the great "liberation" that has occured since the collapse of Christianity in the last half of the 20th Century. The last thing the "liberated" want to hear is a dull sermon from a preachy atheist. "Make the world a better place", hell--I'm gonna get me some while I still can. Once around the ride, baby! Eat, drink, buy and fornicate with as many fine people as I can afford to. And if I can't afford to, well--let's just say there's many immensely exciting ways to acquire the funds--from Enron to knocking over the local party store.
The fact of the matter is that we are religious creatures. Humanity will attempt to fill the God-shaped hole--it has no choice. It will try Islam, the New Age, Buddhism, consumerism, sex, the class struggle, or even the adoration of the Master Race. The craving is there. And it's safe to say that it will not fill it with the ignorant sanctimonious prattlings of an "intellectually fulfilled atheist."
This is dumber than a box of hair. [Thanks to Doug Sirman for that turn of phrase].
No, really. If Dawkins applied the same intellectual rigor to the study of science that he does to religion, he'd be a phrenologist. Or he'd be waxing flatulent about the glories of phlogiston or alchemy. Or he'd be touting whatever two-bit flavor of the month version of scientific huckerism that happened to be on the ascendant. Hmm. Come to think of it...Nah. Another day.
Once again, he demonstrates his consistently anencephalic "insights" into religious belief. Here's my favorite excerpt:
"The word atheism sounds negative; let me call it rationalism. It is a rational view of the world where you stand up proudly, in your humanity, you look life straight in the face, you look the universe straight in the face, you do your level best to understand it, to understand why you exist, what the universe is about, you recognise that when you die that's it, and therefore life is very, very precious and you devote your life to making the world a better place, to leading a good life so when you die you can say to yourself I have led a good life. Now, that seems to me to be a worthwhile goal to put in place of the medieval superstition which is religion. Belief in God doesn't have to be a bad thing, but I think it's a very demeaning thing to the human mind to believe in a falsehood, especially as the truth about the universe is so immensely exciting."
Sure it is. What's a "good life," Dick? Who's your yardstick--Charles Manson or Mother Teresa? Probably the former, since he managed to liberate himself quite effectively from Christian brainwashing...
Yes, Dick, a nihilistic world view in which nothing matters is "so immensely exciting" I need to empty my rapidly-filling kidneys. This is such nonsense it's not funny. Truth be told, the rationalist worldview's attitude towards human life sits on the spectrum running from irritated impatience to Belsen and the gulags. Human life is valuable only so long as it has utility, isn't a burden and doesn't get in the way. Drs. Singer and Kevorkian will be happy to explain it to you. Stalin and Hitler have better ideas for the lives of workers and Herrenvolk. Not to mention the kulaks and untermenschen. Good old Joe and Adolf! Two more enlightened souls liberated from the brainwashed prisons of Orthodoxy and Catholicism! Yay! Over 50 Million Served! Right into their graves.
We need only to look at the secularized West for a foretaste of Dawkins' utopian vision. The preciousness of human life is nowhere present. Abortions by the million, families shattered by the quest for self-fulfillment, parents shuffled off to die--all of this follows in the wake of the great "liberation" that has occured since the collapse of Christianity in the last half of the 20th Century. The last thing the "liberated" want to hear is a dull sermon from a preachy atheist. "Make the world a better place", hell--I'm gonna get me some while I still can. Once around the ride, baby! Eat, drink, buy and fornicate with as many fine people as I can afford to. And if I can't afford to, well--let's just say there's many immensely exciting ways to acquire the funds--from Enron to knocking over the local party store.
The fact of the matter is that we are religious creatures. Humanity will attempt to fill the God-shaped hole--it has no choice. It will try Islam, the New Age, Buddhism, consumerism, sex, the class struggle, or even the adoration of the Master Race. The craving is there. And it's safe to say that it will not fill it with the ignorant sanctimonious prattlings of an "intellectually fulfilled atheist."
