Richard Dawkins

[winterbadger]

I've heard about this fellow from time to time, but I've not read any of his work. I don't, without more convincing argument than I've heard, buy the proposition that religion and science are fundamental enemies--in fact, I'm inclined to believe it is a dangerous fallacy.

But this comment of his that followed the terrorist attacks of 2001is one that certainly strikes a chord.

"Many of us saw religion as harmless nonsense. Beliefs might lack all supporting evidence but, we thought, if people needed a crutch for consolation, where's the harm? September 11th changed all that. Revealed faith is not harmless nonsense, it can be lethally dangerous nonsense. Dangerous because it gives people unshakeable confidence in their own righteousness. Dangerous because it gives them false courage to kill themselves, which automatically removes normal barriers to killing others. Dangerous because it teaches enmity to others labelled only by a difference of inherited tradition. And dangerous because we have all bought into a weird respect, which uniquely protects religion from normal criticism. Let's now stop being so damned respectful!"

I came across that in the Wikipedia profile of him, which lists his published work; I think I need to read some of it.

Comments

[grail76.livejournal.com]

By all means, read some Buckley, but one might think that the various wars in Europe between Catholics and Protestants would have been enough of a sign that zealots exist and people use their faith to get them to do the most outrageous things.

[snolan.livejournal.com]

Dawkins is worth reading, even if you disagree. BTW - he never asserts (at least not in the book I have) that religion and science have to be enemies, nor that they are natural enemies... he just argues, quite well, that by politely skipping the harmful rhetoric of the zealots and fundies; that we have been understood to give them license to speak on behalf of the silent majority. That we can not longer remain silent, nor tolerate this crap from the fundies - that we must speak up or be spoken for... and that makes a whole lot of sense to me.

Likewise, even mainstream organizations need to be corrected from time to time when they are clearly wrong.

It is not longer acceptable for any self-proclaimed Christian to remains silent when another self-proclaimed Christian steals the heretofore good name of Christianity as a whole to make their petty hate message appear legitimate.

Likewise it is no longer acceptable for Catholics to remain silent about the Catholic Church's official position on condoms while they continue to use them. Speak out!

[snolan.livejournal.com]

I know they seem like very different examples - but in truth they are based on the same logic.

When Pat Robertson is allowed to call for the assassination of any human being (in this case the leader of Venezuela), and he claims that such an assassination is a Christian thing to do, then Christians everywhere need to be heard from about how wrong that is, and they cannot remain silent; or they will be treated with exactly the lack of respect they deserve with their silence.