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Post by turoldus on Apr 12, 2009 9:44:59 GMT
In the beginning there was Madeleine Bunting, trying to defend religion from the New Atheist's snarky attacks. She, as expected, did not receive a warm welcome. Stumbling and Mumbling's Chris Dillow, not exactly a devout, came to her rescue but Norman Geras still wasn't convinced. Can't wait for the next episode. While I don't see faith and reason as antagonists, I don't understand why some think of the latter as paramount and the only valuable test for religious belief. I'm even more surprised at Kamm's derogatory use of the term "imagination" as if it wasn't one of the very few qualities humankind can really claim as its own. Would the "war on irrationality" be actually a war on imagination? |
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Post by turoldus on Apr 13, 2009 9:20:21 GMT
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Post by merkavah12 on Apr 13, 2009 10:16:05 GMT
As usual, while I don't agree with some of Baggini's jabs, I agree that the NA's are more
a danger to the future of Atheism than they realize.
Of course, history has shown us that this is often the case, no?
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Post by humphreyclarke on Apr 14, 2009 8:53:22 GMT
Judging by the comments, Baggini is fighting something of a lost cause. Once you get the masses worked up with your ideology - an ideology which states that there is no point in even having a conversation with the 'fluffy' brigade because they are as deluded as the young earth creationist - then there is no putting the genie back in the bottle. You have to just let the whole thing burn itself out. I think you have to get used to the idea that the provocative rhetoric of Dawkins, when it get passed down to his acolytes, quickly regurgitates itself as comments like:
BELIEVING IN RELIGION, ANY RELIGION, IS CHOOSING STUPIDITY OVER FREE THOUGHT. CHOOSING IGNORANCE OVER PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY.
Choosing to be stupid basically.
The idea that we atheists should just let religious idiots believe what they want and ignore them completely ignores the fact that religion is the cause of almost all of the world's problems and that stupid religious people have incredible influence. On top of that, religious people get treated with respect and deference instead of being locked up in mental asylums or homes for the irretrievably stupid. How the hell is that possible?
One can of course dismay at all this and say, 'well I wouldn't have put it that crudely'. But that is a sort of a precis of the stuff Baggini and Dawkins write.
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