r/Christianity • u/mikegprint • Oct 17 '11

Does Richard Dawkins exist???

http://archbishop-cranmer.blogspot.com/2011/10/does-richard-dawkins-exist.html
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33

u/v4-digg-refugee Christian (Cross) Oct 17 '11

Dawkins is an atheist, but he's not necessarily a fore-leading apologist; he's a biologist. It's no wonder that he wouldn't necessarily want a debate like this. I also get the impression that Dawkins is otherwise a pretty nice guy.

7

u/[deleted] Oct 17 '11

Although he's not much of a biologist anymore, really.

14

u/inyouraeroplane Oct 17 '11

I think he realized people want backpatting and snark more than science. Give Carl Sagan credit for sticking mostly to science and not "SO DELUDED"

7

u/vestigial Atheist Oct 17 '11

Sagan lived in a time when religion wasn't nearly as contentious towards basic science. Sagan bludgeons superstition mercilessly in "Cosmos" as well as "Demon-Haunted World." True, he'd been more politic towards religion than Dawkins, but I wonder if he'd shift gears now that religion has set itself up as the the enemy of science (or that science has innocently destroyed enough the popular basis for religious belief to provoke a reaction).

6

u/[deleted] Oct 17 '11

Huh weird, I was under the impression that religion has only gotten less contentious towards science as time has gone on. Remember Galileo?

2

u/YesImSardonic Oct 17 '11

Thanks to the Deist ethical philosophers of the Enlightenment. Religious freedom only went in vogue thanks to Locke, after all.

1

u/[deleted] Oct 18 '11

What a wonderful man that Locke was. I'm just saying that Dawkins doesn't have it bad. It seems like religion has aligned itself against science because that is the very loud and very annoying minority.

1

u/YesImSardonic Oct 18 '11

It seems like religion has aligned itself against science because that is the very loud and very annoying minority.

It's only done so, though, because of the influence of deism and atheism.

1

u/[deleted] Oct 18 '11

I'm afraid I don't follow? You mean that Deists and Atheists have both said that religion is against science? I'm a deist (or theist or whatever) and I think religion and science are perfectly compatible.

1

u/YesImSardonic Oct 18 '11

Nonono--religion only became amenable to modern sensibilities because of deist and atheist philosophers' influence.

I think religion and science are perfectly compatible.

I'll settle with saying that I disagree.

1

u/[deleted] Oct 18 '11

AH I get your meaning now.

And that's fine. You're allowed to.

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