Personal Development for Smart People Forums - View Single Post - Richard Dawkins: Anti-spiritual or Anti-superstitious?

Yev · 01-26-2007, 01:43 PM

Just so that you can make allowances for my bias let me state up front that I am an atheist.

I have read Dawkins "The God Delusion" and I understand why people (like dor) regard him as over the top. Although I agree with his conclusions in general, I think that he is a bit naive in that he regards his standpoint as so self-evident that he cannot understand why lesser mortals fail to see the truths that are so obvious to him. That video clip of him discussing evolution with the gay pastor (Haggard) showed how he was totally unable to deal with the gross stupidity and arrogance of that dreadful hypocrite. He just could not get onto Haggard's wavelength. I think he then becomes "over the top" in sheer frustration in not being able to get others to understand the obvious.

With regard to the original question - anti-spiritual or anti-superstitious - I believe it is to misunderstand Dawkins completely to even ask this question. Dawkins sees these two behaviors (spiritual and superstition) as one and the same thing. And I agree with him on this. If you believe in evolution and accept spirituality as being real, then you have to decide between the position where every living and non-living thing has a spirit associated with it or the position where you decide that at some point god decided to infuse man with a spirit. There is no middle ground.

01-26-2007, 01:43 PM	#10 (permalink)
Yev Member Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Durban, South Africa Posts: 30	Another Dawkins supporter Just so that you can make allowances for my bias let me state up front that I am an atheist. I have read Dawkins "The God Delusion" and I understand why people (like dor) regard him as over the top. Although I agree with his conclusions in general, I think that he is a bit naive in that he regards his standpoint as so self-evident that he cannot understand why lesser mortals fail to see the truths that are so obvious to him. That video clip of him discussing evolution with the gay pastor (Haggard) showed how he was totally unable to deal with the gross stupidity and arrogance of that dreadful hypocrite. He just could not get onto Haggard's wavelength. I think he then becomes "over the top" in sheer frustration in not being able to get others to understand the obvious. With regard to the original question - anti-spiritual or anti-superstitious - I believe it is to misunderstand Dawkins completely to even ask this question. Dawkins sees these two behaviors (spiritual and superstition) as one and the same thing. And I agree with him on this. If you believe in evolution and accept spirituality as being real, then you have to decide between the position where every living and non-living thing has a spirit associated with it or the position where you decide that at some point god decided to infuse man with a spirit. There is no middle ground.