Broke my fast tonight after three days. Couldn’t hack it. Grrr.
Excited by this image of The Joker from the next Batman film though. Looks very dark – as it should be. No more cartoon villians. Show me something that will give me nightmares and long for a caped crusader equally as twisted to keep me safe.
Watched two great old films over the weekend – The Hudsucker Proxy and 12 Monkeys. Both absolute classics.
hey cam, just finished watching a 2 part show on the ABC called religion – Root of all Evil?
It was hosted and narrated by Richard Dawkins and takes points out of god delusion and a few interviews and made an interesting hour. Was definentely for the people who would find God Delusion a bit hard to read (dumbed it down a bit) but none the less very interesting.
Got my wife to watch hoping it would cure her agnosticism or at least get her to think about it.
here the link, not sure if you can download it anywhere (probably YouTube), Second part is called The Virus of Faith.
Just thought you may be intested
http://www.abc.net.au/tv/guide/netw/200705/programs/RN0611H021D20052007T213000.htm
sorry about the comments on the advaida show .You’re doing a great job helping these poor advaita saps along. I love my wife, I love my dog, and I,m happy or joyfull in that. If I pretend to be everything who does it hurt To me the ulimate of advaida is that all is one, and if there is only one , nothing happens . How sad. The Niz said he was pissed that the manisfest came upon him . Does adadvia make life any better than Heaven?>
Rob – yeah I’ve got it on dvd. It’s great but a shame when he loses his with Haggard. We atheists need to get better at having firm discussions with Christians without losing our patience.
pop – in the infinite all dualities like happy and sad cease to have any meaning.
kinda see dawkins as the fundamentalist atheist. i rem lots like him a uni, so emotive and angry. perhaps the disease is in the way of thinking. religion can foster intolerant and bigoted thinking, no doubt, but so can politics, idealism, philosophy, racism, sport, science, etc. I was bought up in fundamentalism, and have been undoing the damage most of my adult life. Last thing I want to do is transform it into another vehicle.
Rich, is there something wrong with being “fundamentalist” over truth versus fiction? Over rational thinking versus confused thinking? I don’t think so.
In every other interview I have ever seen with Dawkins, he is the ultimate genteel British gentleman. The point is that Haggard was frustrating and inane enough to make even Dawkins’ top lip curl back.
However, I do think we atheists needs to get better at pointing out the fallacies in religious thinking without getting upset and frustrated. I personally find it VERY hard. Especially when people blurt out things like “there is no evidence to support evolution”. It makes me want to scream “READ A FUCKING BOOK YOU MORON!!!”
But I try not to. too often.
cam, point is, dawkins labeling religion the “root of all evil” is to broad brush and extreme for me.
secularism of the 20th has demonstrated some dramatic failings. eg. Stalin, an atheist, was responsible for the death of millions through the communist’s “great purge” comes to mind.
conversely, what about the charitable work of benevolent religious people and orgs. eg. mother teresa, salvos, world vision, etc. motivated by a morality defined in their beliefs.
i think he needs to take a page out andrew denton’s book, who cleverly and subtly revealed the flawed thinking of your everyday evangelical in “god on my side” (just finished watching it then)
still enjoyed his provocative thoughts! definitely looking forward to part 2 next week, “virus of faith”.
Rich, Dawkins is on record, even, I think, in his book God Delusion, as saying he didn’t like the Root of all Evil title, that it was the BBC’s idea.
Being an atheist doesn’t make one perfect or even a good human being. But at least Stalin didn’t believe in fairies.
Tally up the people slaughtered by Christians during their own “great purge” (of pagans and fellow heretical Christians) following the deal with Constantine, the several Crusades, the witch trials, the Inquisition, WW1 and WW2, and, my favourite, the invasions of Australia, North and South America, Africa, India, etc,….. and you make Stalin look like a pretty nice guy by comparison.
The point is: good people do good things, bad people do bad things, whether or not they claim to believe in mythological gods or not.
The bottom line for me is that people living in the 21st century who still believe in bronze age mythologies are irrational. And the human race cannot afford to have 90% of it’s population acting irrationally. We need all hands on deck.