tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11222724.post8082287284340330972..comments2023-10-06T04:42:00.513-07:00Comments on <a href="http://www.dogchurch.org">Virtual Church of the Blind Chihuahua</a>: None so Blind as Richard DawkinsScooperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17897723268226845919noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11222724.post-8049892019552988872010-06-21T14:17:08.065-07:002010-06-21T14:17:08.065-07:00The man does not believe science has the answer fo...The man does not believe science has the answer for every thing, you find this to be true with a bit more research on him, he is merely stating that using reason is a far better way to understand the universe than just thinking that god did it, and leave it at that. He is not rigid and bland, he believes the world to be beautiful and amazing, and even if the final answer remains not answered, it is better then not trying to find it at all.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11222724.post-61670866700733823262008-11-04T19:13:00.000-08:002008-11-04T19:13:00.000-08:00Christina,Your best bet would be to check it out o...Christina,<BR/>Your best bet would be to check it out of the library and read it. You can also find parts of it <A HREF="http://books.google.com/books?id=RuYGAAAACAAJ&dq=why+God+won%27t+go+away" REL="nofollow">online</A>.Scooperhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17897723268226845919noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11222724.post-31190391806805971282008-11-04T12:41:00.000-08:002008-11-04T12:41:00.000-08:00would it be possible if anyone knows the page numb...would it be possible if anyone knows the page numbers for this part on religous experience 'in why god won't go away' for i am doing my courseworek on religous experiences being illusions this particular part gives a very different view to much of what i already haveAnonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03529747684432613867noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11222724.post-46526353491476809502007-05-12T00:23:00.000-07:002007-05-12T00:23:00.000-07:00Dawkins always puts me right to sleep...his rigid ...Dawkins always puts me right to sleep...his rigid epistemology is almost juvenile...totally concrete operational. His inability to experience anything that is not empirically driven leaves him with what I consider to be a bland and tasteless world view...a sort of Quaker Instant Oatmeal existence. Instead of Dawkins (or better but still supercilious, E.O. Wilson), read Wendell Berry. He gets it.canoeloverhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11862326219429307936noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11222724.post-2142663729558350952007-02-20T21:14:00.000-08:002007-02-20T21:14:00.000-08:00Postxian,Wow! Thanks for the Alan Watts paraphrase...Postxian,<BR/><BR/>Wow! Thanks for the Alan Watts paraphrase! I had forgotten how right on he could be sometimes. But what gets me is that both Watts and Dawkins make a presumption about the "scientific" mindset - that is both think that Dawkins has it and typifies it.<BR/><BR/>However, I'm a scientist who works at a large lab full of other scientists, many of whom are religious, and many of whom are conventionally so - e.g., Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Muslims...<BR/><BR/>Dawkins' view of the world is profoundly <B>un</B>-scientific, in that it lacks the humility to hold back any final conclusions as to its construction (or map) of reality. I find Dawkins's view to be as dogmatic and inflexible as that of any Fundamentalist. <BR/><BR/>I think I'll give Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel the last word here:<BR/><BR/>"Without reason we would not know how to apply the insights of faith to the concrete issues of living. The worship of reason is arrogance and betrays a lack of intelligence. The rejection of reason is cowardice and betrays a lack of faith." — <I>God in Search of Man</I>, 20, 1955Scooperhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17897723268226845919noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11222724.post-74596411065921233292007-02-18T19:59:00.000-08:002007-02-18T19:59:00.000-08:00This is a paraphrase of Alan Watts:The scientific ...This is a paraphrase of Alan Watts:<BR/><BR/>The scientific mind tends to be repulsed by areas of life where logic, definition, and order—that is, "knowledge" in the scientific sense—are inapplicable. When this type of mind is faced with the limits of its own power to succeed, order, and control, it feels it is surely reasonable to turn away and explore just those areas of life which can be ordered—-so that the sense of success, of the mind's own competence, can be maintained.<BR/><BR/> The contemplation of one's intellectual limitations is, for the pure intellectual, a humiliation. But for the person who is something more than a calculator, what baffles them instills wonder. The other aspect of meeting one's intellectual end is a feeling of liberation which comes from the realization that we need not commit such an immense amount of our effort toward the solution of purely imaginary problems. Some basic nonsense is entirely unavoidable, and the vain attempt to construct a completely self-defining system of thought is a vicious circle of tautology. For example, language can hardly dispense with the word "is," and yet the dictionary can only inform us that "what is" is "what exists," and that "what exists" is "what is."<BR/><BR/>In all its fullness, this admission is precisely faith— the recognition that one must ultimately "give in" to a life-source, a Self beyond the ego, which lies beyond the definition of thought and the control of action. Belief, in the popular religious sense, falls short of this faith, since its object is a God whose nature is knowable. But to the extent that God can be a known object of definite nature, it is an idol, and belief in such a God is idolatry. Thus in the very act of demolishing the concept of the Absolute as a fact about which meaningful statements can be made, logical philosophy has made its most vital contribution to religious faith-—at the cost of its antithesis: religious belief.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com