Oh God
While I disagree with Dr. Richard Dawkins contention that there is no God period, and would rather take a more agnostic point of view, however, I do agree with a lot of what he has to say.
This is an exerpt from his book "The God Delusion," where he makes some valid and pointed arguments.
America, founded in secularism as a beacon of eighteenth century enlightenment, is becoming the victim of religious politics, a circumstance that would have horrified the Founding Fathers.
The political ascendancy today values embryonic cells over adult people. It obsesses about gay marriage, ahead of genuinely important issues that actually make a difference to the world. It gains crucial electoral support from a religious constituency whose grip on reality is so tenuous that they expect to be 'raptured' up to heaven, leaving their clothes as empty as their minds.
More extreme specimens actually long for a world war, which they identify as the 'Armageddon' that is to presage the Second Coming.
Sam Harris, in his new short book, Letter to a Christian Nation, hits the bull's-eye as usual:
Imagine the consequences if any significant component of the U.S. government actually believed that the world was about to end and that its ending would be glorious.
The fact that nearly half of the American population apparently believes this, purely on the basis of religious dogma, should be considered a moral and intellectual emergency."
Does Bush check the Rapture Index daily, as Reagan did his stars? We don't know, but would anyone be surprised?
My scientific colleagues have additional reasons to declare an emergency.
Ignorant and absolutist attacks on stem cell research are just the tip of an iceberg. What we have here is nothing less than a global assault on rationality and the Enlightenment values that inspired the founding of this first and greatest of secular Republics.
Science education - and hence the whole future of science in this country - is under threat.
Temporarily beaten back in a Pennsylvania court, the 'breathtaking inanity' (Judge John Jones's immortal phrase) of 'intelligent design' continually flares up in local bush-fires.
Dowsing them is a time-consuming but important responsibility, and scientists are finally being jolted out of their complacency. For years they quietly got on with their science, underestimating the creationists who, being neither competent nor interested in science, attended to the serious political business of subverting local school boards.
Scientists, and intellectuals generally, are now waking up to this threat from the American Taliban.
Dr. Richard Dawkins
Allan W Janssen is the author of The Plain Truth About God-101 (what the church doesn't want you to know!) at; www.God-101.com
And the petition to have people mind their own business instead of yours at; http://www.petitiononline.com/moses/petition.html
This is an exerpt from his book "The God Delusion," where he makes some valid and pointed arguments.
America, founded in secularism as a beacon of eighteenth century enlightenment, is becoming the victim of religious politics, a circumstance that would have horrified the Founding Fathers.
The political ascendancy today values embryonic cells over adult people. It obsesses about gay marriage, ahead of genuinely important issues that actually make a difference to the world. It gains crucial electoral support from a religious constituency whose grip on reality is so tenuous that they expect to be 'raptured' up to heaven, leaving their clothes as empty as their minds.
More extreme specimens actually long for a world war, which they identify as the 'Armageddon' that is to presage the Second Coming.
Sam Harris, in his new short book, Letter to a Christian Nation, hits the bull's-eye as usual:
"It is, therefore, not an exaggeration to say that if the city of New York were suddenly replaced by a ball of fire, some significant percentage of the American population would see a silver-lining in the subsequent mushroom cloud, as it would suggest to them that the best thing that is ever going to happen was about to happen: the return of Christ...
Imagine the consequences if any significant component of the U.S. government actually believed that the world was about to end and that its ending would be glorious.
The fact that nearly half of the American population apparently believes this, purely on the basis of religious dogma, should be considered a moral and intellectual emergency."
Does Bush check the Rapture Index daily, as Reagan did his stars? We don't know, but would anyone be surprised?
My scientific colleagues have additional reasons to declare an emergency.
Ignorant and absolutist attacks on stem cell research are just the tip of an iceberg. What we have here is nothing less than a global assault on rationality and the Enlightenment values that inspired the founding of this first and greatest of secular Republics.
Science education - and hence the whole future of science in this country - is under threat.
Temporarily beaten back in a Pennsylvania court, the 'breathtaking inanity' (Judge John Jones's immortal phrase) of 'intelligent design' continually flares up in local bush-fires.
Dowsing them is a time-consuming but important responsibility, and scientists are finally being jolted out of their complacency. For years they quietly got on with their science, underestimating the creationists who, being neither competent nor interested in science, attended to the serious political business of subverting local school boards.
Scientists, and intellectuals generally, are now waking up to this threat from the American Taliban.
Dr. Richard Dawkins
Allan W Janssen is the author of The Plain Truth About God-101 (what the church doesn't want you to know!) at; www.God-101.com
And the petition to have people mind their own business instead of yours at; http://www.petitiononline.com/moses/petition.html
Labels: dawkins, dogma, god, god delusion, intelligent design, religion, science
posted by Allan W Janssen | 9:00 a.m.
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home