1. What does atheism say about the purpose (or the meaning) of life?

Comment #195832 by Andrei on June 18, 2008 at 10:21 pm

Life with a purpose is like love with a purpose, something akin to prostitution.

I prefer to think there is no purpose of life, and this is a real good thing.

2. That's not MY God or Religion you're criticising

Comment #85929 by Andrei on November 7, 2007 at 1:50 pm

If that's not YOUR God or Religion I'm criticizing, then what are you complaining about?

In fact, you should be grateful to me for wanting to get rid of the false prophets and not-true followers of YOUR religion. Care to join me in my noble quest?

3. Unintelligent Design

Comment #40070 by Andrei on May 13, 2007 at 1:36 am

Saying "Religion is here to stay" is a bit like saying "Drunkenness is here to stay". If I say "I am a sober man, but others do get drunk at times", does it make me an 'elitist'?

Scott Atran said once that he does not criticize Dawkins or Harris for their desire to get rid of dangerous forms of religion, it's only their methods and goals he is so skeptical about. Fighting drunkenness by means of Prohibition is clearly not the best way.

The public opinion in present day societies is severely biased towards religion, especially in the U.S.A. Many people would declare themselves 'religious' even if they are not, in order to take stereotyped credit of being highly moral and trustworthy persons, which sometimes they don't deserve.

Merely replacing religions with "scientific and materialistic world views" is not enough, it will most likely create different stereotypes like "you're materialist therefore you're good and trustworthy person" (even if you're a criminal) or "you're religious therefore you're going to fly jets into skyscrapers".

Perhaps is stereotyping people on the grounds of their religious views is what we need to properly address. Besides, there is no difference if a country leader tries to justify a questionable decision with "God speaks to me" or "The Historical Necessity demands from us".

If we focus on religious stuff only, we may miss the second one. I suspect this is what Atran tries to tell us.

I personally have no problems with Dawkins' style, I think he is doing a great job, so good luck, Richard.

However Scott Atran does make several valid points. He is a good scientist, and he is doing a very interesting research on human beliefs, so I don't think it's wise to dismiss his criticism just because we like Dawkins.