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Dawkins seems a bit *confused* here
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handofdave
handofdave
3515 posts

Edited Jul 09, 2009, 14:18
Re: Dawkins seems a bit *confused* here
Jul 09, 2009, 14:16
"It's a pity that most religions do not tolerate a diversity of personal belief or lifestyle, and those that do had to be dragged kicking and screaming into the modern world."

Who decides who is to be dragged kicking and screaming? That sounds very spookily like the Catholic Church when presented with 'heathen'.
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The worlds of religion and science are not mutually exclusive. They overlap all the time... there's not always two clearly defined camps.

All observant people may not be deep thinkers, but they do feel a need to be part of something that is not just bigger than themselves, it's bigger than any single human being or even nation of them. That fundamental psychological need manifested in the form of religion.

Seriously, a great deal of today's religious people already have embraced science without all this need for cathartic disavowals. Lots of them accept evolution. They still believe in God, anyway Why? Because that idea is second nature to billions of people. And it's not as irrational a concept as all that... our rational science is busy creating imaginary worlds based on hypothetical models of existence and nobody bats an eye.

In a way, both religion and science are not so much concerned with stating the truth, but finding the truth. Religion is primarily concerned with ethical truths, and science is primarily concerned with observing and understanding and manipulating nature. The jury is still out on whether a godless society would unlock our potential, or take us in a terrifying new downward path of 'rational', morally uncoupled self interest.

Most people really don't even think about theology, when you actually get right down to it. They do devotions out of ritual, tradition... the church becomes the meeting ground for a community's coming together. It's just what they know, what they grew up with.

There's a return to that need for gathering being reconstructed in new forms among people that feel drawn to that shared energy. Whether it serves to nurture or harm is the only thing I am interested in. I'm a very live and let live person.

If atheism intends to become a transformative movement it is going to fail, utterly, by casting scorn or acting imperious.

I do not think you are seriously suggests that atheism could ever force the extinction of religion. Because that's just silly.

A far more beneficial and achievable goal, simply improving people's lives by teaching them good science, and creating more tolerance and trust thru dialog. You might gradually help change some of the more egregious interpretations of religion, but you'll never kill them outright.
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Re: Dawkins seems a bit *confused* here (CianMcLiam)
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