Are You Religious

[obrienobrien]

if anyone is a church goer and believes in it all so be it..

for some this is all they have... and if it gets them thru the day... who am i to criticise

 

[Scorer]

Hmm, I think the YouTuber is slightly taking him out of context there. Also I don't think it's "news" that he's mentioned that the UK is a "culturally Christian country". He may have even said the same thing way back in The God Delusion while explaining that the book is predominantly about a Christian god because of his cultural heritage.

I'm an unashamed Dawkins fanboy.

I have enjoyed his books but I don’t like him and think he probably holds some quite distasteful socially Darwinian views.

 

[The King of Um]

I have enjoyed his books but I don’t like him and think he probably holds some quite distasteful socially Darwinian views.

He's an absolute weirdo when it comes to women ('Exactly. If you want to drive, don’t get drunk. If you want to be in a position to testify and jail a man, don’t get drunk' on a woman who'd been raped when she was too drunk to consent) and his comments on child abuse ('one of his former school masters "pulled me on his knee and put his hand inside my shorts," and that to condemn this "mild touching up" as sexual abuse today would somehow be unfair.'..."I look back a few decades to my childhood and see things like caning, like mild pedophilia, and can't find it in me to condemn it by the same standards as I or anyone would today" and worst of all, 'though his other classmates also experienced abuse at the hands of this teacher, "I don't think he did any of us lasting harm" - how the fuck would he know?) were rank.

Like many very clever people who are well known for one or two things, he has that unswerving uncritical certainty that he's right about all other things too.

 

[Kent_Mackem]

if anyone is a church goer and believes in it all so be it..

for some this is all they have... and if it gets them thru the day... who am i to criticise

I don't think any non-believer would ever disagree with that.

For me, where the nonsense crosses a line is when the elders start indoctrinating children or when believers start harming or killing others in the name of their god.

 

[JonMc]

I'm an unashamed Dawkins fanboy.

He's an oaf. An evolutionary biologist who wants to think that man should be more of a being of logic and empiricism than the animal that he is.

 

[Kent_Mackem]

He's an oaf. An evolutionary biologist who wants to think that man should be more of a being of logic and empiricism than the animal that he is.

Surely we can be both? That is, after all, our "advantage".

 

[JonMc]

Surely we can be both? That is, after all, our "advantage".

We can aspire to be both but at our core we are nothing but an emotional animal. As for any advantages, that's debatable.

 

[Kent_Mackem]

We can aspire to be both but at our core we are nothing but an emotional animal. As for any advantages, that's debatable.

One of the few times I agree with you, which is why I put it in quotes.

 

[fyl2u]

He's an oaf. An evolutionary biologist who wants to think that man should be more of a being of logic and empiricism than the animal that he is.

Are you saying we shouldn't aim to be logical and empirical?

Or that you're unable to be, which would be a skill issue.

 

[JonMc]

Are you saying we shouldn't aim to be logical and empirical?

Or that you're unable to be, which would be a skill issue

Why try to be something you are not?

I've lived my life where one of my biggest thrills has been watching a bag of air being put over a finishing line. The idea wasn't ever logical or empirical but by by God it was a lot of fun. You can aim to be something else if you want. I like being with the animals.

 

[Mercia Blackcat]

Why try to be something you are not?

I've lived my life where one of my biggest thrills has been watching a bag of air being put over a finishing line. The idea wasn't ever logical or empirical but by by God it was a lot of fun. You can aim to be something else if you want. I like being with the animals.

Sometimes watching that bag of air go over the finishing line is pure bliss. No matter how much you think about it later it's not quite the same as that spontaneous reaction.

 

[JonMc]

Sometimes watching that bag of air go over the finishing line is pure bliss. No matter how much you think about it later it's not quite the same as that spontaneous reaction.

You said something a long time ago that stuck with me.

We are a brain connected to a central nervous system. We are biological experience machines.

What gives us pleasure is rarely logical. I just don't fight it. I'd rather get my pleasure where I can. If people want to try to convince me that being illogical has been a mistake then they're welcome to try.

 

[JaFlan86]

No. Too much pain and greed in the world for a god or superior powet to exist. Unless they're kernts like -

 

[Kent_Mackem]

Why try to be something you are not?

I've lived my life where one of my biggest thrills has been watching a bag of air being put over a finishing line. The idea wasn't ever logical or empirical but by by God it was a lot of fun. You can aim to be something else if you want. I like being with the animals.

I’m not sure you answered his question though…..

 

[Mercia Blackcat]

You said something a long time ago that stuck with me.

We are a brain connected to a central nervous system. We are biological experience machines.

What gives us pleasure is rarely logical. I just don't fight it. I'd rather get my pleasure where I can. If people want to try to convince me that being illogical has been a mistake then they're welcome to try.

I've posted recently about Shakti. Now would people rather have a shakti experience with a woman they love or just think about and analyse the neurological and biological process?

 

[nandos sonic sauce]

God no

 

[fyl2u]

Why try to be something you are not?

I've lived my life where one of my biggest thrills has been watching a bag of air being put over a finishing line. The idea wasn't ever logical or empirical but by by God it was a lot of fun. You can aim to be something else if you want. I like being with the animals.

Without logic and empiricism, you wouldn't be able to watch that bag of air being put over a finishing line. Humans wouldn't have invented the technologies necessary to create a football, the boots and strips, the flat turf-growing and trimming technology, the paint for the lines on the pitch, the goals, the nets, the ref's whistle, the stadiums, the transportation you use to get to the match, the floodlights, the TV cameras, transmission technology, electricity and television you might watch matches on, not to mention all the equipment and science involved to create and host this forum and invent and create whatever devices you use to access it to post on this thread, the house you live in, the delivery trucks that supply the supermarket or shops that you buy your clothes and food in...

If you truly liked "being with the animals", eschewing logic and empiricism and not "trying to be something you're not", you'd live naked in a field, foraging your own food or killing it with your bare hands (not even using any tools), and get your biggest thrills watching the other animals run around the field with neither a bag of air nor a finishing line to put the bag across.

You said something a long time ago that stuck with me.

We are a brain connected to a central nervous system. We are biological experience machines.

What gives us pleasure is rarely logical. I just don't fight it. I'd rather get my pleasure where I can. If people want to try to convince me that being illogical has been a mistake then they're welcome to try.

It is absolutely logical to partake in pasttimes that you've decided to give value to, and there are endless scientific studies about how your brain chemistry provides you with happiness when engaging in those pasttimes.

 

[High Entropy]

We are a brain connected to a central nervous system. We are biological experience machines.

You're lump of organic matter trapped in a completely dark skull, you only know of anything because of poor organic sensors and chemicals.

Nothing you feel is real, it's the result of chemicals. love isn't real, excitement isn't real, euphoria isn't real, the pleasure you feel isn't real.

Given the right chemicals you can feel the taste of how purple sounds - or rather, your brain will believe that sensation.

You are something you're not.

 

[CatOnKeyboard]

No, despite the fact that my Dad taught R.E. at Bede and my sister became a minister.

 

[JonMc]

Without logic and empiricism, you wouldn't be able to watch that bag of air being put over a finishing line. Humans wouldn't have invented the technologies necessary to create a football, the boots and strips, the flat turf-growing and trimming technology, the paint for the lines on the pitch, the goals, the nets, the ref's whistle, the stadiums, the transportation you use to get to the match, the floodlights, the TV cameras, transmission technology, electricity and television you might watch matches on, not to mention all the equipment and science involved to create and host this forum and invent and create whatever devices you use to access it to post on this thread, the house you live in, the delivery trucks that supply the supermarket or shops that you buy your clothes and food in...

If you truly liked "being with the animals", eschewing logic and empiricism and not "trying to be something you're not", you'd live naked in a field, foraging your own food or killing it with your bare hands (not even using any tools), and get your biggest thrills watching the other animals run around the field with neither a bag of air nor a finishing line to put the bag across.


It is absolutely logical to partake in pasttimes that you've decided to give value to, and there are endless scientific studies about how your brain chemistry provides you with happiness when engaging in those pasttimes.

The game began using a cobbled together 'ball' with goals across open fields and it was haphazard in it's evolution. We improve the game not because it's logical but because it's fun and we can get those same endorphins to run though our veins just as effectively by inventing a cure for some disease rather than becoming emotionally attached to a silly illogical game and wasting hard earned money and time on frivolity. Like I say, we get a ticket to life and we spend it how we choose. Those endorphins can be unlocked in a million logical and illogical ways. Worship a non existent God or worship a stupid sports team...or do both. The choice is up to the individual and as long as it is Dawkins will be butting his head against a brick wall.

You're lump of organic matter trapped in a completely dark skull, you only know of anything because of poor organic sensors and chemicals.

Nothing you feel is real, it's the result of chemicals. love isn't real, excitement isn't real, euphoria isn't real, the pleasure you feel isn't real.

Given the right chemicals you can feel the taste of how purple sounds - or rather, your brain will believe that sensation.

You are something you're not.

Logic. Taken to it's conclusion it can prove my lifetime of experiences weren't actually real. That's exactly what I'm talking about.

But if you want to live a life devoid of real pleasure or believing you're something you're not then that is your choice. It's not my choice.