1. Review interview: Richard Dawkins

Comment #223687 by ukantic on August 3, 2008 at 6:57 am

More on this here:

http://community.bcseweb.org.uk/viewtopic.php?t=1871

And Here:

http://community.bcseweb.org.uk/viewtopic.php?t=1870

Alan.

creationism

2. How to reconcile Richard Dawkins?

Comment #173698 by ukantic on May 1, 2008 at 6:21 am

But what of atheism? Surely Stalin's purges, including his execution of orthodox priests and nuns,

This connection is often over-exaggerated & anyone who investigates the history of these matters will soon realise just how simplistic it is to claim that these killings were simply a result of Joseph Stalin's alleged atheism. Yes, he did kill many members of the clergy, but then he was liable to kill almost anyone who crossed his path. Including many members of his own party.

"He not only "liquidated" veteran semi-independent Bolsheviks but also many party bosses, military leaders, industrial managers, and high government officials totally subservient to himself. Other victims included foreign Communists on Soviet territory and members of the very political police organization, now called the NKVD. All other sections of the Soviet eliteâ€"the arts, the academic world, the legal and diplomatic professionsâ€"also lost a high proportion of victims, as did the population at large, to a semi-haphazard, galloping persecution that fed on extorted denunciations and confessions."

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/562617/Joseph-Stalin

Put simply, just because he killed religious figures, it does not necessarily follow that the killings were motivated by purely by atheism, you have to prove cause & effect.

3. Response to Theodore Dalrymple

Comment #85365 by ukantic on November 5, 2007 at 3:09 pm

I tend to agree with Dalrymple over the lack originality of some of the arguments put forward by atheists, but then again that charge can be made against theists as well. Or as they say, pot – kettle – black!

However, that doesn't detract one iota from the fact that never before have the strands of atheistic thought come together with such force, clarity & effect as it has with the output of the, "new atheists".

It is irrelevant if atheistic viewpoints sound jaded to the initiated, because to the public who are buying these best selling books in their masses, they must come as revelation – and that is all that really counts.

Alan.

http://www.creationism.co.uk
http://www.bcseweb.org.uk/