Like "Global Cooling" this ploy was a big deal back in the 60s.
The pinko-commies just never give up.
Posted on 04/22/2008 8:07:48 AM PDT by forkinsocket
The fastest-growing faith in America is no faith at all. And now some atheists think they need a church.
It seems unlikely that many of the 850 or so people at the Society for Ethical Culture on a recent Saturday night believed that God was still extant. But evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins, author of The God Delusion and possibly the most famous atheist in the world, was not taking any chances. He gave a PowerPoint presentation driving home that religion does not meet any of the standards of basic scientific inquiry, before casually flicking away a few of His last crutches. Doesn’t God provide people some solace? asked an audience member. “Isn’t that a little childish?” Dawkins replied. “Just because something is comforting doesn’t mean it’s true.” Then someone asked about death, and Dawkins quoted Mark Twain: “I do not fear death. I had been dead for billions and billions of years before I was born.”
The room erupted in loud applause. God had definitely left the building—if he were ever here at all. Dawkins and his colleagues had helped to produce a kind of atheist big bang, a new beginning. But what kind of new structures might evolve?
The Society for Ethical Culture was formed in 1877, eighteen years after Charles Darwin published On the Origin of Species and made the religious universe wobble on its axis. But godlessness can be a little scary, even for an atheist. Ethical Culture’s imposing 1910 edifice on Central Park speaks to its patrons’ wealth, as well as their concern that society might fall apart if it didn’t have a church. But for all the grandeur of its secular cathedral, Ethical Culture peaked at maybe 6,000 members, with only about 3,000 today.
Now, once again, nonbelievers have a fresh sense of mission.
(Excerpt) Read more at nymag.com ...
Ah, Dawkins. The “biologist” who couldn’t begin to describe the basic chemistry of RNA? The “biologist” to whom elementary quantum physics (the regulator of all things - life or otherwise) would be a mystery. Yup, he’s gonna tell me about God. Gads, he wouldn’t last in my freshmen classes, let alone some real science stuff. Why doesn’t he stick to his basic memorization meme and leave real science to the rest of us. Actually, I don’t really think that God even gives a remote care about his thoughts... since they’re so obviously weak and ill organized.
The rants contained in them are easily refuted by those who have ears to hear.
This guy’s gonna get one hell of a shock when he finally kicks off.
More power to Dawkens and his fellow atheist evangelists!
Now go to Saudi Arabia and evangelize the heathens there please.
Dawkins is absolutely sure and so must be applying an absolute standard. Whose is it? Sigh. Thanks, Fork, for keeping us posted on the march of intellectually bankrupt thought!
The French tried this once when they turned the churches into “Temples of Reason”. History in hindsight calls this period “The Reign of Terror”.
Dear Editor:
Who gets to define what is good, moral, charitable, evil, etc.? You? Me? MTV? A Saddam? A Stalin?
To ancient Aztecs - cutting out the still beating heart of a human sacrifices (including children) was the highest order of good.
To a large percent of Muslims - killing, raping and enslaving infidels is the highest order of good in Islam.
To Hindus - Attacking, ignoring, prejudicing against and letting die for people in lower order castes is perfectly alright.
To certain Pacific Tribes - eating your enemy was the highest form of good.
And I could go on for pages...
The works we hold in value in the West are good works from a Christian viewpoint:
Matthew 22:37-40 — Jesus replied: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
And Jesus also said “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” (Luke 6:31; Luke 10:27 (affirming of Moses) and Matthew 7:12)
But by no means has this “philosophy” been accepted the world over as “good or moral.” Not by a long shot.
What makes murder inherently wrong (to Christians) is not that it feels wrong, but that a transcendent Creator to whom we are answerable commands: “Thou shalt not murder.” What makes kindness to others inherently right (to Christians) is not that human reason says so, but that God does: “Love thy neighbor as thyself; I am the Lord.”
For what is “good or evil” without God? Without any footing for moral actions - anything can be rationalized as good or evil. You can just make it up as you go along. Good actions can be whatever society thinks it is with the popular culture at the time. If that be in Nazi Germany or Pol Pot’s Cambodia or North Korea - that means doing “good” is slaughtering millions of people and sending millions more into misery. But, by their own human standards at the time in history, they were all doing good.
You grew up and live in a country founded in Judeo-Christian values, so it may seem obvious to you what is “good.” But that is due to the Judeo-Christian influences on you (even if you don’t believe in God or never have been to Church). To others without that kind of influence, doing “good” can be radically different.
Regards,
2banana
People don’t give their money to organizations that have no authority to ask for it.
He really sounds like a scared and insecure little person.
His argument that design was a part of the origins of life, but that it must have been highly evolved ETs that designed it is circular, begs the question, and really can’t hold up -
why would a super intelligent ET seed a planet with a single celled organism if they had fully “evolved” critters to drop?
Excellent post.
Challenge.
The IRS
After watching this clown Dawkins struggle to answer even the most basic challenges to his positions posed by Ben Stein in Expelled, I can’t believe anyone gives this guy the time of day. What passes for ‘genius’ and ‘expertise’ in the liberal world of academia is an embarrassment, for all involved.
Once again, atheists are being defined by their opponents. The only thing that all atheists have in common is an understanding that there is no proof for the existance of a god.
There are atheist jihadists, people who treat atheism as a religion, but the vast majority simply are like everyone else and live like everyone else.
This article, like “Expelled”, was timed for release around the visit of the Pope in a cynical ploy to make money off of the faithful. Contrary to the implication of the article, athism isn’t a religion and it doesn’t need churches. There is literally nothing to celebrate or worship. I am aware of no “hymns” in atheism. I assume the author meant they sang songs. People sing “take me out to the ballgame” during the seventh inning stretch. A baseball stadium isn’t a church and that song isn’t a hymn.
Religion ain’t science and atheism ain’t religion.
Whether those people believe it or not, we ALL belong to God. We are on this earth for a purpose, God’s purpose.
There are some who think they are in charge of their lives. They are. But, God still uses them.
Those of us that accept God’s will, know our purpose and do not fear “death”. We also know that the Bible requires faith. It will never be understood by closed minds and hearts.
Faith is required to unlock its meaning.
David Aikman, former TIME correspondent, recently wrote The Delusion of Disbelief: Why the New Atheism Is a Threat to Your Life, Liberty, and Pursuit of Happiness. It’s a solid read.
www.isanyoneupthere.com
“The latest wave of God-bashing books are nothing but retreads of old arguments.”
I have never understood why atheists would write “God-bashing” literature. Why be derogatory about something that doesn’t exist?
Atheists are perhaps the most definite proof that God DOES EXIST.
Thanks. Hope this makes a direct link.
My problem is not with God but with an anthropomorphic God. We can choose to refer to God in ways that are cartoonish or in ways that reflect the true nature of the Laws of the Universe. I happen to believe that science gives us a more accurate idea about how an infinite Universe composed of matter, energy, space and time can produce sentient minds (us).
We are Christ-like in that we can discover how the Universe is constructed and appreciate the miracle of existence. All other considerations about God are metaphor projections of aspects of our own subconscious- God as just, avenger, parental, guiding, having a “plan”, etc.; these are all human attributes.
The Universe seen through a telescope is anything but human, however we are derived from it- that is the God/Christ connection. The problem with metaphor religions is that they require ministers and imams to tell us what it all means or we have personal epiphanies guided by ministers and imams which seal the fate of our minds.
The God revealed by science is a god for free beings, accessible to all as originally conceived. The laws and patterns of the Universe discoverable by sentient minds may not press us to mama’s bosom, but they sure make life more sensible and allow us to make further discoveries and advance civilization rather than trap it in a feudal hell like them Aztecs and Hindus and Islamics.
God may never be but if He is, He always will be. He can not die.
Please speak for yourself. Racism and slavery were also justified once, on a Biblical basis.
| If one of evil life turn in his thought | |
| Straightly to Me, count him amidst the good; | |
| He hath the highway chosen; he shall grow | 120 |
| Righteous ere long; he shall attain that peace | |
| Which changes not. Thou Prince of India! | |
| Be certain none can perish, trusting Me! | |
| O Prithâ’s Son! Whoso will turn to Me, | |
| Though they be born from the very womb of Sin, | 125 |
| Woman or man; sprung of the Vaisya caste | |
| Or lowly disregarded Sudra,—all | |
| Plant foot upon the highest path; how then | |
| The holy Brahmans and My Royal Saints? | |
| Ah! ye who into this ill world are come— | 130 |
| Fleeting and false—set your faith fast on Me! | |
| Fix heart and thought on Me! | |
| Make me your supremest joy! and, undivided, | |
| Unto My rest your spirits shall be guided. |
- Krishna, Bhagavad-Gita, Chptr. IX.
Agnosticism is a lack of faith. Atheists are dead certain in their belief that there is no god.
Some atheists are antitheists and gather to ridicule those with religious beliefs, the current wave specifically targets all of their arguments to attack Christianity.
INTREP for the DOOMED
Isn't it a bit of a logical leap to go from the statement "there is no proof for the existence of a god" to "there is no god"?
I don’t approve of atheism. It’s a particularly rigid and fundamentalist religion.
With acquittal of the officers charged in the Sean Bell trial, one is reminded again of the difference between real issues, such as the two systems of justice we have in this country and ‘media’ issues such as setting up atheist churches ( and gay marriage ).
In the usual deceitful manner of atheists, McManus neglects to disclose that of the 16.1 percent who are Religiously Unaffiliated, only 1.6 percent are atheists. 2.4 percent are Agnostic and the remaining 12.1 are ‘Nothing in Particular’.
Also, another LIE in the New York Magazine print version table of contents: ‘With anti-religion polemics toppings the book charts…’ according to the New York Times, only one of the bestsellers today is an ‘anti-religion’ book: The God Delusion, at # 12 on the NY Times Paperback Nonfiction Best Sellers. ’90 Minutes in Heaven’ is # 8.
The NY Times Nonfiction Best Sellers also include: Grace ( Eventually ), and The Reason for God.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.