The Dawkins documentary

[jack_ryder]

murasaki_1966 and I watched it with my mother (who is a church going Christian). We all had problems with Dawkins' thesis but Mum has the same reservations about the extreme forms of religion (whether Xtian, Jewish or Islamic) that we do.

It was like doing a documentary on alcohol by only interviewing alcholics.

(Except for the bits with the atheists - what they said about their persecution is terrible, but we found it rather non-controversial.)

 Mum accepts my atheism and I accept her Christianity - we have so many other things to talk about.

(and our lack of conflict about our differing belief systems was what prompted the play "Faithless" - which may get a revival at the end of the year. Then again - the way our luck has been running - it may not.)

Comments

[jack-ryder.livejournal.com]

So how can you have scientists who believe in God?

And I certainly believe in Christianity (I believe people find it a useful explanation for existence, but I believe we have much better explanations.

And I certainly believe there are things I don't know - I come across them all the time. That said, I don't believe there has to be a guiding intelligence behind everything - I'm with Dawkins when he says it's far more fabulous if it all occurred by accident.

I do believe that people use religion (or find religion useful) to function without being frozen by existential questions - but then most atheists I know aren't hampered by that either - I'm just not in favour of kicking the crutches out from under believers. If people didn't have religion as an excuse to misbehave, I'm pretty sure they'd find other excuses.

I do value Dawkins opening up such debates (atheism had very much been backed into a corner by the "intelligent design" movement being taken seriously by the media) but I think Dawkins is being overly dogmatic in his approach.

Just to be clear - I believe in Christianity (i.e. its existence), but I'm not a Christian believer.

[dfordoom.livejournal.com]

So how can you have scientists who believe in God?

To me, you could only do that by a kind of intellectual dishonesty. A kind of Orwellian double-think. Or it's simply wishful thinking.