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Bringing you atheist articles and building active godless communities takes hundreds of hours and resources each month. If you find any joy or stimulation at Atheist Republic, please consider becoming a Supporting Member with a recurring monthly donation of your choosing, between a cup of tea and a good dinner.
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I have read the God Delusion several times and thoroughly enjoy it, as I always pick up more each time. I have also read his other books and enjoyed them just as much. The man is a well educated factual person of logic and reason. People also should realise that some of Dawkins attacks against religion and his intolerance of religious people comes from a constant onslaught of theists trying to catch him out or trying desperately to make a fool of him in public. This happens often and one time was when Andrew Denton in Australia interviewed him several years ago. The interview went reasonably well until Denton decided to try to be a smarty and have a sly shot at Dawkins. Dawkins hopped up and walked out of the interview without another word. At that moment, I lost all respect for Denton and gained more respect for Dawkins. Richard Dawkins (much to his credit) does not suffer fools. To anyone reading this; If you have not read the book and ever get an opportunity to do so - - - Read it!! You will be better for it.
Dawkins is not hateful as a matter of fact sometimes he shows more patience than I think I could.
See Richard Dawkins Interviews Creationist Wendy Wright
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFjoEgYOgRo
its unbelievably funny
I want to read this book!
"The God Delusion" is a good read. I recommend it. In the tradition of Thomas Paine's "The Age of Reason" Dawkins has contributed another well reasoned argument against the evils that religion has wrought upon humanity.
The point I would like to make about Professor Dawkins is that he was helpful in exposing Saudi literature entering British schools and other problems in our education system. Thank goodness he bothered. Nothing might have been done if it was left to Tory politicians or British clerics. He can be very forthright...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-15226421
The book is really well written.
Look forward to all of his books though I do prefer his more scientific works (the selfish gene is probably my favourite book), this particular book is one of my favourites.
I haven't read it and I don't intend to (since I get the Point of "God's" existence). But while Relying on some Comments, this Guy (Richard Dawkins) seems to actually Hate Religion rather than Disagree with it. I hope He isn't those Zealous Atheists who Swear all the time against Christianity with words like: "Death to Christ, Burn the Bible, etc". I mean, these Christians also called out to us "Burn the Heathens, Death to Heathens, etc" (A long time ago), so Seriously, there is No need to Become The People Who We Are "Fighting" Against!
Either way, by my Personal Thinking, I seem to find Richard Dawkins more Rational rather than Hateful. It's kinda hard to Distinguish these 2 Things on Certain moments.
It's not my role to defend Mr Dawkins, but just as Mr Dawkins I am an outspoken anti-theist. I have therefore gotten the same reaction from others myself.
As an anti-theist, I consider organized religion (especially the Abrahamic religions) to be harmful for humanity. It is one of the biggest contributors to the problems in our world today and it is holding back progress. I was previously keeping the thread "The dark side of Theism & Superstition". It contains post after post on horror, stupidity and insanity caused by unwarranted beliefs: http://www.atheistrepublic.com/forums/debate-room/dark-side-theism-super...
The purpose of keeping that thread was to get both atheists and theists aware of how ugly religion is if you dare to actually look at the bad parts. But I'm taking a long break from it, since I eventually grew weary of digging through that horror show.
Criticizing religion has always been forbidden and is still considered taboo even in the most modern societies. Anyone who criticizes religion, gets labeled as a "hater" extremely easy.
Personally I found the best approach is the Socratic method, in the refined form created by Peter Boghossian: Street Epistemology. That approach does what is possible to avoid the anger and adverse reactions in the believer, while questioning the foundations of their beliefs.
But Mr Dawkins obviously thinks that the blunt truth should be told, regardless of the reactions:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_2xGIwQfik - Neil deGrasse Tyson is trying get Richard Dawkins to start using a softer approach.
Most believers who does get so upset when their religion or their faith is criticized, doesn't seem to reflect on why they feel that way. If they actually felt that their own beliefs are true, they should feel secure enough in their faith that they would only pity those who have not understood. They shouldn't feel the need to lash out...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhYT4vE1gvM - Hate E mails with Richard Dawkins
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gW7607YiBso - Love Letters to Richard Dawkins
"But Mr Dawkins obviously thinks that the blunt truth should be told, regardless of the reactions:"
Perhaps he should reflect that believers are religion's greatest victims. Attack the bishops, mullahs, popes and priests by all means. Most of them aren't true believers anyway and deserve to be exposed and ridiculed. But a full-on attack by someone of Dawkins' intelllect aimed at an audience of ordinary believers is like shooting the wounded on a battlefield.
If you want to undermine a theist's beliefs, just ask them to explain their religion.
you have no read it
no nothing about it
no hope thing of Richard
yet make up silly projections of what you "hope he is not" so you can get to say nasty shit that he doesn't even do
good job captain imagination
got some real hatred brewing there you wanted to vent to the wind
mission accomplished
Link : http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2016/05/11/the-arabic-trans...
This seems newsworthy to me, so I report it here.
Some Iraqi guy translated the God Delusion into arabic. this is an unauthorized translation. The PDF was downloaded 10 millions times, 30% of the visitors are from saudi arabia.
"Some Iraqi guy translated the God Delusion into arabicThis is excellent news."
The translator deserves our greatest respect. The Japanese translator of "Satanic Verses" was murdered in 1991, and I believe the Italian translator was stabbed but survived.
"The God Delusion" is much more powerful, because it is more readable and down-to-earth than Rushdie's book.
I absolutely love this book.
It`s very interesting, clever and useful work.
Very good book, just finished reading and it's a classic.I would recommend it to any atheist. Dawkins is a genius and revoulutionary.
Just finished God Is Not Great, Hitchens references this book more than once.
How does it rate? I've seen Dawkins debate but never read his stuff.
I enjoyed this book, this was one of the first books I read as an adult, seeking answers and opinions to a lot of my questions. I have always been an atheist, I have always questioned it, but growing up in a christian home I had found it very hard to express my views. I do not see anger in this author, just frustration. This book was enlightening.
I've got the God Delusion on Audio and listen to it frequently. Mr. Dawkins can not be argued against when it comes to biology. All the facts are on his side. As far as religion being a byproduct of something else, I am in complete agreement.
A human being in the wild is little more than a walking hamburger. Humans do not have the speed to outrun a predictor. The do not have the strength to fight them off. Our skin is not armored. We have no talons, tusks, or horns. Venom does not spew from our bite. We easily succumb to infections and our infants take longer to mature than any other species on the planet. If we were not group animals we would be extinct. In fact it has been asserted by scholars that the reason for Neanderthal extinction was their inability to bond as well as humans.
It is our ability to bond that has seen us through our evolutionary stages to modern society. It is our ability to create rules, develop morality and indeed invent superstitions. Clan superstitions and gods gave way to tribal superstitions and gods. At each step of the evolutionary process our gods grew with our understanding of the world around us. From simple animism, to polytheism, and sympathetic magic, monotheism and parasympathetic magic. A shared religion like shared culture and shared physical attributes served to facilitate the bonding of early humans to one another.
These belief systems are equally responsible, then and now, for the conflicts between clans, tribes, communities and cultures. This is exactly what we would expect from independently evolving groups of humans across the globe and exactly what we would not expect from the influence of an all powerful and all knowing creator God.
The ideas that religions put forward are no longer useful It is once again time to evolve.
This is a fantastic read, I do not find Richard Dawkins hateful at all. His best work is possibly "The greatest show on earth". Only one way to find out, read it. Dawkins is clearly fed up with religion and rightly so, coming from a evangelical background I fully agree and support his point of view.
I do not think that Dawkins is hateful towards religious people. he is not that stupid to show hatred towards believers as individuals who chose to believe because they find comfort and meaning in religion and have no intent to force their Ideas on others and shut off those who disbelieve. but him bashing on religion as a whole, perfectly makes sense. if we look on it's harmful side. (watch his documentaries, children getting brainwashed by extremists ? alternative medicine in the name of religion ?? how he cannot be irked ??)
I respect Mr. Richard because he chose to spend time out of his field to talk over religion. it means a lot to those who read him a translated or maybe pirated version of his book, and who live in strict religious communities and harmed by religion. those at least understand his harsh tone, and find it justified. maybe Christianity is now a defanged snake. and that we shouldn't be hard on poor religious people around the world because in faith, they find their only solace. but not where religion is still blocking a decent secular human society where we all get to live and express our ideas without accountability. and not where women get their clit chopped off, or bloggers and free thinkers get killed and lashed. or religious parties shoving their medieval agenda into politics like preventing the theory of evolution from being taught...an endless cornucopia of harms that make the stances of Richard Dawkins Against religion fully excused.
This Book is seriously changing my life- and for the better. I have always had these doubts and thoughts sifting around inside of my head and Dawkins has finally given me a platform. I am only 65 pages in and I am all in with my heart and soul. I grew up in a conservative catholic church in the very liberal new England... even so- the church still got its agenda of anti-abortion and anti-LGBTQ+ across- even in a super liberal town as well. I am not saying that I hate religion or anything like that- I believe that everyone has the right to believe what they want. But my personal opinion for myself and I am speaking for myself only when I say- I have become whole ever since becoming an Atheist and leaving my painful, guilt-riddled and diversity scarce religion behind. Dawkins' book has opened my eyes to so much. I can see how one person may not want to read it. My only quarrel with that is if one does not challenge themselves and read things of the opposition they will not grow... I have personally read portions of the bible and the Qu'ran so I have indeed engaged in education of the opposition. Also- if a person says that they wont read this book because they dont "agree" or like the way he speaks on religion- that is a huge problem. Maybe those people are too afraid that once they read this book they will come to the realization that maybe they are atheist deep down and have always known it but have not wanted to admit it. I think if every person read this book- religion would decrease because some people on the fence (agnostics) and low level believers of other secular religions would become atheists. This is just a theory- I am not an expert. I am just a person trying to understand why humans think and believe what they believe and why. I do not hate religion- in fact there are parts of religion that are good. But also there are parts that are inconceivably bad. The first two chapters of this book are enough to convince an average person to become an atheist.
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