1. Richard Dawkins discusses Einstein's new letters

Comment #179768 by matt_shute-07 on May 13, 2008 at 5:13 pm

[quote]I'm not convinced that Einstein was an atheist. It seems more likely that he was a deist[/quote]

Wasn't he a pantheist?

Dawkins made me chuckle when, in The God Delusion, he described pantheism as "sexed-up atheism". Belief in Spinoza's God certainly requires very little in the way of faith...

2. Research Volunteers Needed

Comment #178185 by matt_shute-07 on May 10, 2008 at 6:49 pm

Done. I hope the data is useful.

3. Interview with Dan Dennett

Comment #168585 by matt_shute-07 on April 25, 2008 at 8:12 am

I'm full of admiration for Dan Dennett - a brilliant writer and enemy of unreason.

4. Is religion a threat to rationality and science?

Comment #167460 by matt_shute-07 on April 24, 2008 at 4:27 am

Lord Winston, who has had to defend the new Fertility Bill against dogmatic Catholics, ought to know better... yet he continues to trot out this same tired old nonsense that religion is no threat.

Religion poisons everything, including our faculties of discernment. Winston doesn't even see the enemy breathing down his own neck.

5. Religious education as a part of literary culture

Comment #162101 by matt_shute-07 on April 16, 2008 at 6:50 am

My sister is an occasional critic of Richard Dawkins and his "dogmatic" atheism. Dawkins "states the obvious" and he paints a simplistic caricature of religion and religious people, only mentioning the negative.

As a staunch anti-theist, I felt I had to challenge the simplistic caricature of Dawkins and his ideas. I gave my sister the God Delusion a while after it came out, but she returned it unread. That doesn't stop her trying to critique the book, however!

6. Hitchens vs. Hitchens

Comment #159487 by matt_shute-07 on April 12, 2008 at 9:38 am

Peter had Christopher on the ropes, regarding the Iraq fiasco. As for religion -- it wasn't a fight but a massacre. Christopher tore the weak pro-religious arguments to shreds with wit and relish.

7. Expelled Overview

Comment #151673 by matt_shute-07 on March 29, 2008 at 7:15 am

I watched the extended trailer for Expelled, and it didn't exactly make me want to rush out and see the film. The idea of listening to that whining narrator go on for more than a few minutes is about as appealing as a lobotomy, perhaps with similar results. What a lot of moaning and self-pitying paranoia from the poor creationists, upset when their dopey "theory" meets with near-universal ridicule.

8. Interview with Richard Dawkins

Comment #116717 by matt_shute-07 on January 27, 2008 at 8:35 am

Poor old John. Please take the advice given to you and visit a museum. A visit to a library might also be a good idea. The Bible is not the only book in the world, and it is certainly not the most enlightening.

9. Sam Harris debate with Rabbi David Wolpe

Comment #109065 by matt_shute-07 on January 8, 2008 at 8:51 am

Sam Harris at his brilliant best.

10. Richard Dawkins on 'Have Your Say'

Comment #105133 by matt_shute-07 on December 30, 2007 at 4:51 pm

RE: Comment #41

Gay or not, the man was a crass buffoon, albeit an educated one.

If he was gay, that was the only positive thing anyone has mentioned about him. Yet, as a priest, he must remain celibate, cannot even masturbate, and is clearly rather unhinged as a result.

One more of crime of religion - repression of something vital and integral to our identities: our sexuality.

11. Richard Dawkins on 'Have Your Say'

Comment #105085 by matt_shute-07 on December 30, 2007 at 2:23 pm

What a woeful bunch of callers.

"It's absurd that we could have evolved by 'random chance'." Check.

"Hitler and Stalin were atheists!" Check.

Etc.

Well done, Professor Dawkins, for managing to keep your cool while being forced to listen to such annoying nonsense.

12. This deadly religious resistance to vaccinations

Comment #96954 by matt_shute-07 on December 11, 2007 at 6:47 am

I remember reading a rant by Melanie Phillips about how all pornography is evil and wicked, even when the performers are consenting adults. Peter Hitchens, of the Mail on Sunday, has similar views. He also suggests that evolution is a myth, and that Intelligent Design should be offered to children as an alternative "theory". He was also one of the ring-leaders whipping up hysteria about MMR. The anti-science motive is fairly transparent.

It's a sign of the times that such extremists are given a platform, writing in a rag pumping out populist righ-wing drivel for the masses every day.

The propaganda does seem to have an effect, btw. My mother began buying the Daily Mail every day, and has been doing so for a couple of years now. Whenever I talk to her, lately, she sounds like Alf Garnet. "Britain is finished. All these immigrants pouring in to this country, breeding like flies." She's never even met an immigrant, as far as I know. And she used to be fairly liberal, believe it or not.

13. Bill Moyers interviews Jonathan Miller

Comment #89922 by matt_shute-07 on November 22, 2007 at 6:45 am

Jonathan Miller is a national treasure and a respected intellectual. I saw this documentary on BBC2 a while ago, and have also tracked down the "Atheism Tapes" on Youtube. Marvellous stuff.

14. Ayaan Hirsi Ali at AAI 07

Comment #86410 by matt_shute-07 on November 9, 2007 at 7:05 am

Ayaan Hirsi Ali was the best speaker at the conference, imo.

15. The New Atheists on Organized Freethought

Comment #85159 by matt_shute-07 on November 5, 2007 at 7:20 am

I'm sure some other sarcastic so-and-so has already pointed this out (sorry, I'm too lazy to read all of the previous comments), but "organized freethought" sounds like a whopper of an oxymoron.

Maybe "organized rationalism" would be a better title.

16. Good News: Both our Foundations are now Officially Recognized as Charities

Comment #70894 by matt_shute-07 on September 17, 2007 at 7:28 am

Excellent news!

17. A Response to Jonathan Haidt

Comment #69940 by matt_shute-07 on September 13, 2007 at 8:44 am

"Brilliant as usual. Sam is so very very good."

I second that motion, Richard. Sam is always eloquent when refuting these tedious misunderstandings.

18. The Fleas Are Multiplying!

Comment #69425 by matt_shute-07 on September 11, 2007 at 8:04 am

Has Christopher Hitchens picked up any fleas yet?

I can imagine a possible "imaginitive" titles.

"Yes, Mr. Hitchens, God IS Great, you silly Atheist."

Maybe that's a bit long, though...

19. Review of Richard Dawkins' new book 'The Fascism Delusion'

Comment #69252 by matt_shute-07 on September 10, 2007 at 7:12 am

If fascism can somehow re-brand itself as a faith, this exactly the kind of nonsense religious apologists may one day be writing about those who criticize the deity Hitler.

20. 'Root of All Evil? The Uncut Interviews' Released on DVD

Comment #68139 by matt_shute-07 on September 6, 2007 at 8:28 am

I've just finished watching the Alister McGrath interview, and I found it very illuminating. Richard Dawkins was far more convincing than McGrath, I found, and its a shame some of this exchange didn't make it into the final cut of the Root of all Evil. I particularly enjoyed the final exchange, in which McGrath challenges Dawkins about why he gets angry about religion. The reply from Dawkins sums up nicely the reasons for anti-theism.

21. His word: Attacking religion can seem like breaking a butterfly on a wheel

Comment #54540 by matt_shute-07 on July 7, 2007 at 5:28 pm

Ultra-Darwinism? I'm not sure this part of Baddiel's critique warrants much of a rebuff, so I'll leave it there.

22. Beyond Belief 2006 Videos

Comment #22225 by matt_shute-07 on February 13, 2007 at 3:37 pm

Sam Harris, Richard Dawkins, Steven Weinberg... with some of the most lucid minds on the planet in attendance, this should be a real gem to watch.

23. 'God Is Not a Moderate'

Comment #21910 by matt_shute-07 on February 11, 2007 at 3:59 pm

I posed the question of what we atheists should do regarding people who (in the words of Richard Dawkins) are "immune to argument", but who nevertheless pose a threat to the world due to dubious beliefs about the universe that can drive some to kill in the name of one True God or another.

Godless101 wrote "ignore them".

fonex_86 wrote:

"GODLESS101,

As much as we'd like to do that, we can't, for several reasons:

1. Those deluded fools are our fellow humans, and that attitude would simply give more credibilty to their argument that we nullifidians are arrogant.
2. Many of those deluded fools are people in a position of power. It would not be wise to ignore your government.
3. You won't be able to ignore them when they're pointing a gun/brandishing a club/holding a knife against your throat because you're an infidel.

I fear that one day the only answer they will allow us is violent retaliation."

This is what scares me, and yet I can't foresee any way that secular liberalism and ideologies like militant Islam/fundamentalist Christianity can ever be reconciled without eventual violence - probably launched by believers against us infidels. Could the next world war be fought not just by nations but by individuals in contested societies over something so surreal as which myths we believe/disbelieve?

*shudder*

I used to believe that reason had to prevail in the end, because truth and logic were the ultimate weapons against delusion.

My confidence is shaken. The depths of human stupidity and self-delusion may be near infinite...

24. 'God Is Not a Moderate'

Comment #20735 by matt_shute-07 on February 6, 2007 at 7:28 am

If only Sam Harris's views were more widespread in America, that frightening hotbet of religiosity and, frankly, widespread ignorance. If humanity has a future, people like Harris and Dawkins must find a way to win the argument so resoundingly that people begin to reject faith as an approach to the world... en masse.

Mr. Harris's last question to Sullivan was:

"Let me close by asking you a simple question: What would constitute "proof" for you that your current beliefs about God are mistaken?"

I won't attempt to pre-judge Mr. Sullivan's answer to this. But one of the problems we face is that, for many religious people, the answer seems to be "nothing whatsover could ever convince me that my faith is wrong."

As Dawkins wrote in his intro to The God Delusion, some people really are immune to argument. Which raises the question... what do we do next?