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Religion vs. Atheism: Dawkins vs. Collins
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mack the knife



Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Location: standing right behind you...

PostPosted: Sat Jan 13, 2007 5:32 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Quote:
Like most reasonable people, he believes that God created evolution, and that evolution in turn created humans.


Is that not creationism, but on a macro scale? I'm confused...
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gang ah jee



Joined: 14 Jan 2003
Location: city of paper

PostPosted: Sat Jan 13, 2007 5:55 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

mack the knife wrote:
Quote:
Like most reasonable people, he believes that God created evolution, and that evolution in turn created humans.


Is that not creationism, but on a macro scale? I'm confused...

Generally speaking 'Creationism' refers to the belief that genesis is a literally true account of the origins of the universe and life.

"Those who hold strict creationist views reject scientific theories that contradict their understanding of their religious texts. Most notable is the rejection of the scientific consensus on evolution and common descent by most creationists. They often also reject the scientific consensus regarding the geologic history of the Earth, formation of the solar system, and origin of the universe."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creationism

It would never occur to me to call reputable scientists like Francis Collins and Ken Miller 'creationists', even though ultimately they believe that God created the universe.
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Rteacher



Joined: 23 May 2005
Location: Western MA, USA

PostPosted: Sat Jan 13, 2007 6:11 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

One can find gold even in a filthy place. South Park nailed it in their recent satirization of Richard Dawkins. Although he was the "founder of worldwide atheism", he learns from his wife ("Mrs. Garrison"...) that mere logic is not enough - "you must also be a dik to all others who disagree with you"... Even with religion out of the picture, different atheist factions fight among themselves. (After all, the Vedas state that this is the "Age of Quarrel and Confusion"...) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Go_God_Go_XII
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Grimalkin



Joined: 22 May 2005

PostPosted: Sat Jan 13, 2007 7:04 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I read thro' the debate but I wasn't particularly impressed. Sad


Part of the reason was that I thought the questions were a little too facile.


Another reason was that I felt you could have predicted the answers both Dawkins (who I'm a big fan of) and Collins would make. I didn't think it really added to the overall debate.


I love to see a really good debate between both sides but with a panel of experts from different disciplines on either side.
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mack the knife



Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Location: standing right behind you...

PostPosted: Sat Jan 13, 2007 8:00 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Quote:
Generally speaking 'Creationism' refers to the belief that genesis is a literally true account of the origins of the universe and life


Ah, I see. So it comes down to semantics. I just assumed that any who believe "God" created anything could be labeled a creationist. It seems as if another word is needed to label those people who believe that events in the holy books actually happened as written. Oh, wait....aren't those people called Fundamentalists?

From here on out, let's call anyone who believes that God is running the show a "creationist" and anyone who interprets their holy books literally a "fundamentalist". That's much clearer.
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Grimalkin



Joined: 22 May 2005

PostPosted: Sat Jan 13, 2007 8:15 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

mack the knife wrote:
Quote:
Generally speaking 'Creationism' refers to the belief that genesis is a literally true account of the origins of the universe and life


Ah, I see. So it comes down to semantics. I just assumed that any who believe "God" created anything could be labeled a creationist. It seems as if another word is needed to label those people who believe that events in the holy books actually happened as written. Oh, wait....aren't those people called Fundamentalists?

From here on out, let's call anyone who believes that God is running the show a "creationist" and anyone who interprets their holy books literally a "fundamentalist". That's much clearer.


The problem with that is that we would be using the term 'Creationist' with a different meaning on this thread to that used generally (and even as it has been used in other threads on these forums) which would lead to a lot of confusion.

Quote:
Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - Cite This Source
fun�da�men�tal�ism Show Spelled Pronunciation[fuhn-duh-men-tl-iz-uh m] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation
�noun
1. (sometimes initial capital letter ) a movement in American Protestantism that arose in the early part of the 20th century in reaction to modernism and that stresses the infallibility of the Bible not only in matters of faith and morals but also as a literal historical record, holding as essential to Christian faith belief in such doctrines as the creation of the world, the virgin birth, physical resurrection, atonement by the sacrificial death of Christ, and the Second Coming.
2. the beliefs held by those in this movement.
3. strict adherence to any set of basic ideas or principles: the fundamentalism of the extreme conservatives.


Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - Cite This Source
cre�a�tion�ism Show Spelled Pronunciation[kree-ey-shuh-niz-uh m] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation
�noun
1. the doctrine that matter and all things were created, substantially as they now exist, by an omnipotent Creator, and not gradually evolved or developed.
2. (sometimes initial capital letter ) the doctrine that the true story of the creation of the universe is as it is recounted in the Bible, esp. in the first chapter of Genesis.
3. the doctrine that God immediately creates out of nothing a new human soul for each individual born.


It's probably simpler just to use the standard definitions.
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mithridates



Joined: 03 Mar 2003
Location: President's office, Korean Space Agency

PostPosted: Sat Jan 13, 2007 8:17 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

mack the knife wrote:
Quote:
Generally speaking 'Creationism' refers to the belief that genesis is a literally true account of the origins of the universe and life


Ah, I see. So it comes down to semantics. I just assumed that any who believe "God" created anything could be labeled a creationist. It seems as if another word is needed to label those people who believe that events in the holy books actually happened as written. Oh, wait....aren't those people called Fundamentalists?

From here on out, let's call anyone who believes that God is running the show a "creationist" and anyone who interprets their holy books literally a "fundamentalist". That's much clearer.


Maybe to you, but that's not what the word creationist actually means in general use so you'd have to explain to people each and every time how you hold a different personal definition of the word. I'd go with "strict creationism" for one and "theistic evolution" for the other instead.
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gang ah jee



Joined: 14 Jan 2003
Location: city of paper

PostPosted: Sat Jan 13, 2007 8:57 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

mack the knife wrote:
From here on out, let's call anyone who believes that God is running the show a "creationist" and anyone who interprets their holy books literally a "fundamentalist". That's much clearer.

No, let's do it the way everybody else does it.
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SirFink



Joined: 05 Mar 2006

PostPosted: Sat Jan 13, 2007 10:24 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

mack the knife wrote:

We're talking specifically about people who believe in "God" whilst disposing of all the religious baggage. Again, I've never met ONE.


I've met many. You know: all those people who say they believe in God but not "organized religion." All those people who, when you ask them to get specific about their god, give you all that warm and fuzzy, the Force mumbo-jumbo: "God is, like, a force in the universe that guides us... and stuff. But, dude, I'm like, totally not into organized religion and all that crap."
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RACETRAITOR



Joined: 24 Oct 2005
Location: Seoul, South Korea

PostPosted: Sat Jan 13, 2007 10:43 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

God vs science? That makes no sense. God created all scientific phenomena, so the more we learn about it, the closer we get to finding God (whether there even is one).
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mack the knife



Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Location: standing right behind you...

PostPosted: Sat Jan 13, 2007 11:42 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Quote:
No, let's do it the way everybody else does it.


Do you always follow the herd?

Quote:
God vs science? That makes no sense


Sure it does. I say that there are scientific explanations for everything. Others say that some things will never be explained by science because "God did it". End of story.

Quote:
It's probably simpler just to use the standard definitions


Exactly, that's what I'm suggesting. Pay attention, world.
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tomato



Joined: 31 Jan 2003
Location: I get so little foreign language experience, I must be in Koreatown, Los Angeles.

PostPosted: Sun Jan 14, 2007 2:30 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

On another thread, someone posted a link to the article:

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1555132-4,00.html

I was disappointed that Dawkins dodged the question of good and evil.
I am afraid that that passage in the article will reinforce the stereotype of non-theists as beer-guzzling, bed-hopping libertines.

I have made a list of possible sources of evil--or that which is called evil.
For those of you who have already seen this list on the other thread, I apologize for the repetition:

■ violation of instincts

Just as animals of other species establish an orderly society, our prehistoric ancestors established an orderly society. There may have been other animal species which did NOT establish an orderly society, but if there were, those species quickly went extinct.

Most likely, we arrived at the rules of "thou shalt not kill" and "thou shall not steal" long ago. If there was an occasional violation, the rest of the tribe quickly took care of it. This was long before know-it-all preachers started standing at the pulpit and talking down to us.

Heterosexuals are in the majority because heterosexuals can reproduce. Moreover, there is survival value in fear of the unknown, which is why heterosexuals reject homosexuals. Preachers can harp all they want to about homosexuality being "an abomination in the eyes of God," but that doesn't fool us Evolutionists one bit.

■ male instincts

No matter what the police, the court, the legislature, and the criminologists do, men will be more criminal than women for a long time to come. No matter what the preachers and the Sunday School teachers do, men will be more evil than women for a long time to come.

Men are in a double-bind. We carry the same law-and-order instincts as women, but we also carry violent and aggressive instincts which conflict with the law-and-order instincts. Without the violent and aggressive instincts, we could not have been good hunters and warriors.

Most of us do not work as hunters or warriors now, but our inner brains don't know that.

■ disparity between our evolutionary past and modern times

This disparity manifests itself in so many ways that I will have to subcategorize.

▶ disrespectful disagreement

Click onto this forum any day and you will see two parties quarrelling with each other and insulting each other. At first glance, it may seem that they are trying to convert each other. So why do they insult each other? You wouldn't want to agree with someone who calls you a 바보 and a 멍청이!

So why do we insult each other?

Because our inner brains tell us that we are on the battlefield. In prehistoric times, there probably wasn't much intellectual discourse. Whenever there was strife, it was on the battlefield. So even today, every time we click onto this thread, our inner brains tell us that we are on the battlefield.

▶ bad habits

Can you name some things which are attractive but harmful? I can name a few:
alcohol, cigarettes, junk food, illegal drugs, and excessive TV and video.

Now turn it around and name some things which are unattractive but beneficial. Here again, I can name a few: schoolwork, hypodermic needles, dental operations, and medical operations.

All of these items have one thing in common--they weren't around a million years ago. If they were, our instincts would have adapted accordingly.

▶ sex hang-ups

In the extended family system, everyone grew up in an environment with people of all ages and both genders. Now that we live in the nuclear family system, we are not so richly blessed.

I wonder, then, if homosexuality, pedophilia, the sissy boy syndrome, the tomboy girl syndrome, the Oedipus complex, and the Electra complex are inventions of the nuclear family system.

▶ pollution

Why are we so ecologically unwise?

Because we don't love our great-great-grandchildren. In prehistoric times, there was no need to love someone who hasn't even been born yet, so why should we?

▶ abortion

In prehistoric times, we only loved people we could see. We can't see a fetus, at least not without modern technology. So what is the point of loving a fetus?

▶ war

Iran disagrees with us? Kill them! Iraq disagrees with us? Kill them!

This seems like an easy solution, as long as you don't think about the millions of innocent people who are affected. And those people are hundreds of miles away, so it is easy NOT to think about them.

Here again, we are indifferent to people whom we can't see.

▶ international relations

Why do we have so much trouble getting along with Koreans? And why do Koreans have so much trouble getting along with us?

Because in prehistoric times, modern transportation and communication did not exist. There was no need, then, to "love the whole wide world."

Most of the people you knew looked like you and talked like you. But what about those exceptions? If they spoke a different language, you couldn't understand them. Foreign language textbooks and cassette tapes were long in the future. If someone who looked different from you came up to you and said something nonsensical like "안녕 하세요,� you wouldn't know WHAT that meant!

The safest assumption would be that it means "I'm going to tear you limb from limb."
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tomato



Joined: 31 Jan 2003
Location: I get so little foreign language experience, I must be in Koreatown, Los Angeles.

PostPosted: Sun Jan 14, 2007 2:46 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

gang ah jee wrote:
No, let's do it the way everybody else does it.


mack the knife wrote:
Do you always follow the herd?


In matters of opinion, no.
In matters of definition, yes.

Humpty Dumpty seems to do it differently.
Here is an excerpt from Through the Looking Glass:

Quote:
'There's glory for you!'

`I don't know what you mean by "glory",' Alice said.

Humpty Dumpty smiled contemptuously. `Of course you don't -- till I tell you. I meant "there's a nice knock-down argument for you!"'

`But "glory" doesn't mean "a nice knock-down argument",' Alice objected.

`When I use a word,' Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, `it means just what I choose it to mean -- neither more nor less.'

`The question is,' said Alice, `whether you can make words mean so many different things.'

`The question is,' said Humpty Dumpty, `which is to be master -- that's all.'
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gang ah jee



Joined: 14 Jan 2003
Location: city of paper

PostPosted: Sun Jan 14, 2007 3:05 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

tomato wrote:
gang ah jee wrote:
No, let's do it the way everybody else does it.


mack the knife wrote:
Do you always follow the herd?


In matters of opinion, no.
In matters of definition, yes.

Humpty Dumpty seems to do it differently.
Here is an excerpt from Through the Looking Glass:

Quote:
'There's glory for you!'

`I don't know what you mean by "glory",' Alice said.

Humpty Dumpty smiled contemptuously. `Of course you don't -- till I tell you. I meant "there's a nice knock-down argument for you!"'

`But "glory" doesn't mean "a nice knock-down argument",' Alice objected.

`When I use a word,' Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, `it means just what I choose it to mean -- neither more nor less.'

`The question is,' said Alice, `whether you can make words mean so many different things.'

`The question is,' said Humpty Dumpty, `which is to be master -- that's all.'

There's glory for you!
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Grimalkin



Joined: 22 May 2005

PostPosted: Sun Jan 14, 2007 3:57 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

mack the knife wrote:

Quote:
It's probably simpler just to use the standard definitions


Exactly, that's what I'm suggesting. Pay attention, world.


Did you miss the rest of my post? Confused
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