In light of all of these lengthy posts, I thought it time to throw something out that I find funny and hideous simultaneously. I want to begin to hint at the fact that a Science God, a deity who is quickly becoming the deity-elect of a growing society of skeptics, is one of the larger errors we can make as secularists and atheists. Dick Dawkins, an attractive elderly Briton who more often than not gets his point across (that there is no god but evolutionary reasons for why we tend to believe in him), often hammers it home in a way that, although it may delight us atheists, may never really persuade the conformist to the atheist (or 99.99% agnostic) world-view. Allow me first to set up this embedded video. DD has just read a portion of his book to Randolph-Macon Woman’s College in Lynchburg, VA, a neighbor of Jerry Falwell’s Liberty University (the entirety of this reading and the Q & A can be found here).
In short, after Dawkins’ reading, Liberty U students (primarily evangelicals) highjack the Q & A, asking half-baked questions, all be them relatively well-mannered in delivery. The problem, I found, with the questions was that they seemed engineered not to debate Dawkins, nor to question his views for clarification. Rather, they all seemed aimed at “stumping” him. That is, there was no active listening or participation, just the deadly nonsense of Junk Theology. A particularly edifying moment of comeuppance for these LU student’s, many of them left buckling under the weight of the supposed second-coming of Darwin (highly debatable):
I think Dawkins’ point (though at this it time this argument is as a heavily-propagandized atheist response) is spot on. But Dawkins is lacking something: tolerance. In a particularly moving interview between Michael Shermer, editor of The Skeptic Magazine and Ann Druyan, in which she explains why her husband Carl Sagan was so good at talking with the religious about gods: he listened. I am definitely guilty of reverting back to atheist propaganda when I stand against a deist from time to time, but I also know that it is always more effective to listen, to tolerate the idea that someone else intelligent may have an opinion about something.
Don’t mistake me. Dawkins is not arrogant. He is passionate. But his passion often appears as arrogance, and that will turn people off. In the 2006 Beyond Belief conference Neil deGrasse Tyson, an astrophysicist and popular science writer, offers this argument to Dawkins. Dawkins’ response is, I have to say, brilliant, funny, and resolutely British (save the swear-word), but it’s, you know, going to turn a lot of people off. Again, it is not arrogant…nor is it scientific…nor is it a good response, but it is funny:
Most of us skeptics expect evidence (a deluge of evidence), in order to accept something as truth. Dawkins rides a high horse here: it seems highly improbably that Darwinian Selection and Evolutionary Theory will ever be disproved. So be it, but without humility and care in offering our arguments, we will get into trouble. Granted, I consider myself at least half as passionate about this debate as DD, and it does come out as such, I think. But I have maintained over the few months that I’ve been doing this that everything is open for debate on this web log.
When I talk about a Science God not working, I know that it kind of begs the question: What do you mean? Well, there are certain pillars outside of such sure bets as Evolutionary Theory. I’ll post a (slightly larger) article about String Theory later on, but let’s just say, for now, that it is a pillar of speculation that has lost nearly all of its humility, and seems to have only proved how easily science can squander its resources on nonsense. Why do I bring this up at the end of this? Two reasons:
1) Neil deGrasse Tyson is an outspoken critic of String Theory. So it got me thinking of it.
2) Dick Dawkins, “god love him,” lays a some seriously speculative scientific mumbo-jumbo String Theory Goldilocks Zone stuff out in his The God Delusion. Dawkins almost sounds like Kurzweil, a genius inventor quack who believes he will live forever, when he goes on about superstrings.
Apart from all of this however, I suppose I must say that I find infinite pleasure in Dawkin’s responses. Enjoy.
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5 Comments
June 8, 2007 at 1:30 am
He also talks CA-CA and DO-DO.
July 29, 2007 at 7:03 pm
Hi Alex and Charles, Now the reason I came to your site is that an important message has been sent down , just like a News Update. The message is for you. Please read and pass it along. The Trinity has a message to tell you about Revelation. The message is from God, Jesus and the Holy Ghost respectively. Sent in the Spring of 2006. It is about the meaning of First is Last and Last is First. The message is this: In the morning I go to Heaven. In the afternoon I live my life. In the evening I die, death. What does this mean? In other words this means Birth is Last and Last is Birth. To understand this don’t think from point A to point B. Think of this as a continous circle of life. Birth, Life, Death, Birth. God also said that Judgment will be before Birth in Heaven. AS birth on Earth is painful so will birth in Heaven. It is possible that this message was delivered by one of God’s Angels. Yes, God has recently made contact and he sent a messenger. Spread this message along, just like a chain letter. Tell two people. Oh, one more thing of interest. Did you know that Mike Douglas died on his Birthday. Melanie Steffen
July 29, 2007 at 7:06 pm
If you see Richard, please tell him that God has made contact. See message above. Also tell Richard that Jesus wants to see him in his office, ASAP. Melanie
July 25, 2008 at 1:16 am
I came back to make a correction. I thought God would be mad at Richard for what he said. I was wrong. God said that he holds affection for Richard. He is fond of him. God said that Richard goes to Heaven. Now I have always been told that Atheists go to Hell. That is not the case. Good atheists go to Heaven. Bad Christians can go to Hell. It is your character not you beliefs that determine your out come. Then God may even agree with a few points Richard made in is book “The God Delusion”.
February 6, 2009 at 1:57 am
Here is one small piece of proof.
Like I said earlier, the Holy Spirit talked to me, besides his message about First is Last and Last is First, he had something to say about “Who Killed JFK”. Christ tells me that the man who shot JFK is a policeman. He also tells me the name of the shooter, but it is in a jumbled word. The word is “Fritters”. I see the name F. Ritter right off so I think that is the name of the killer. Now God has lots of other messages for me to figure out, so I put “who Killed JFK” on the back burner for over a year. A year or more later , just recently, I have more time to look for F. Ritter. I can’t find a policeman with that name who lived in Dallas, Texas in 1963. So I am searching for information about who killed JFK and there is a picture of a policeman by the name of JD Tippit. Now Tippit kind of looks like Ritter. Now I unjumble the letters of Ritter to TIRRET. Now TIRRET looks more like TIPPIT. Now I make the R’s stand at attention, I get TIPPET. One problem is that the I and the E are not the same. So I do some research on the family name TIPPIT. Turns out that in the late 1800’s JD Tippit’s grandfather changed their name from Tippett to Tippit. So the next step I change the E to I. So Tippet is now Tippit.
Now I have FS Tippit and JD Tippit. The first two initials are not the same. Next I go to Wikipedia there I find; “Some thought that J. D. stood for Jefferson Davis. However JD does not stand for anything. That means his name is just J D. So the initials F S, do not stand for anything. I just have two initials that do not stand for anything. Are you following me?
Next what does FRITTERS mean. If your following my thinking here, God is going to tell you what happened to JD Tippit after he was shot. Fritters are a dough that is deep fried. Bread also means body, like in the last super Christ takes the bread and says this is my body. Look in the dictionary, PIT means HELL. TIP means money paid, gratuity. There are other meanings to.
JD Tippits body (dough) is placed in the deep fryer (lake of fire). Now I think this clue (Fritters) was ingenius. After all God came up with it. I think he does have a sense of humor too. Kids now have a new game to play. They can play God. Pilsbury dough boy fry’s in the lake of fire. You get HELL! fry baby fry!
If you think this is just crazy. Remember I am just the messenger. Jesus is the one that had to talk about JFK. So he had a reason for doing that. Chirst is telling you who killed the president so that you will believe that his messages are from God. Remember only God knows who killed JFK. He told me and I am telling you. I had forgotten about the case years ago. This is a cold case now, it been 45 year since the shooting. Nov. 22 is the anniversary.
I also read the part about giving false prophesy. God says false prophets go to Hell or something like that. I only repeat what God told me. Now what I wrote above is from God. He told me who killed JFK in 2006. The above is not a lie or a joke and I am going to HEAVEN without fear.
Before I forget. Gods messeges usually have more than one meaning. F S could also stand for “Fence Shooter”.
Who are the co-conspirators? Turns out that there are two policemen named Tippit, and one other Tippett working in the Dallas police Department that same year(1963). Back to the clue word Fritters. That is plural, you know about plural. We have two fritters. The co-conspirators name is Gayle M. Tippit.
Now the Dallas Police Departtment obviously covered up and framed Oswald. He was the Patsy. They did it cause it is very possible that one of the other police officers rushing to the scene saw Tippet fleeing the scene carrying a rifle. They covered it up because of the embarrassment of one of their own was the man that killed JFK? And the Warren commission must have also figured that out so they stuck with the Dallas Dept. story saying that it was Oswald. It could have been a National embarrassment. Now if you look at the evidence like I did. It is easy to see that the DAllas Police Dept tampered with the evidence over and over again. And they did a very bad job of it too.
Now this is my opinion, not Gods. I think God is behind the creation of the Internet. I could never have been able to figure out a lot of his messages without the use of the Internet. People on the Net have been a big help to me. God talks to other people too, they just don’t know it. God let me know it was him.
This is proof because it is impossible for any one to do what I did with the clue word FRITTERS. I made it look easy. I can do that over and over again in all of God’s messages. It is impossible for anyone to do what I do.
Gods Messenger, Melaine