I've just posted it on another thread but thought many other would see it if I dedicate a thread to it. It is brutally honest and sincere, something you don't hear often lately. Definitely one of the best I've ever heard. While you're at it check the site too, it is one of my favorite sites ever.
Explosive talk given by by Richard Dawkins, highly recommended
by zagor 50 Replies latest jw friends
-
-
BurnTheShips
Thanks.
I am watching the video now.
Dawkins is doing God's work, for sure.
Burn
-
catbert
I prefer youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1APOxsp1VFw
Easier to download from. -
Dagney
Excellent! Thanks for posting. Especially since I'm actually going to a KH tomorrow as a favor, the video put some good thoughts in my brain for exactly why I won't go back.
Thanks again.
-
zagor
Thank you catbert for that one, but it is not one I had in mind. If you can't watch video on TED I'd suggest you download MP3 version, It leaves out a segment or two but 95% of it is there http://ted.streamguys.net/ted_dawkins_r_2002.mp3
Or if you still prefer video (it is well worthwhile to watching the full version before listening to mp3 so you know the background) then go rather here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3l0LB_S2Io (Part 1)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gItNc_GTCtc&feature=related (Part 2)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P9bm3VmWDxI&feature=related (Part 3)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xcBF8cV9CXg&feature=related (Part 4)
-
IP_SEC
Ok I watched. He is enjoyable to listen to. I've read his books, they are mostly good.
Its just that, I think he is wrong. I believe the world is changing. Fewer and fewer people are religious. Less and less people believe in god. This will only grow over time. I dont think WE need to do anything. God has been dead for years and religion is killing itself. I see what he wants as REVOLUTION. What I want and what I believe is happening is EVOLUTION.
Revolution is fast, furious, and painful
Evolution is slow, sure, and easy
Revolution last until the next revolution
Evolution is forever
-
zagor
Not everything in evolution is slow and gradual, form time to time things happened that accelerated change, like wiping out of dinosaurs that likely allow humans to become dominant species, to mention but one. Likewise similar things occur in human society. For centuries nothing happened in Europe during which people were born and died into ignorance and incidentally we call that period Dark Ages. It took revolutionary events of enlightenment period to bring about change. In my opinion to do nothing is call for dormantism which is precisely what religious dogmatics would want us to do never mind they are substantially 'militant' in the way they promote their ideas. Remember people will listen to whoever is the most vocal not necessarily who is right and history had proven it again and again.
If religion is loosing grip in States how does one explain raise of leaders that thrive on verbiage peppered with religious references?! Just a thought. Of course, Europe is completely different and so is Australia and NZ, don't know about Canada yet.
-
IP_SEC
You are exactly right, from time to time things happen that accelerate change. Galileo and other like him were asteriods. OoS rocked the world, it was like an asteroid changing people forever whether they believed or not. Technology and science is another asteriod.
Now on your revolutionary theory. Do you think the knights came back from the crusades and bamm!! We are out of the dark ages? Hell no bro it took nearly 300 years to see the fruits of that. It was an evolution, not a revolution. Because of that those fruits are still with us and growing. Now if you are fond of citing revolutionary events, take for example the communist revolution. Atheism enforced. Did it last? No, and should not have. Im not saying revolutionary ideas are wrong. Im just saying there really is no need for militant atheism. religion is on is last leg... unless an asteriod hits us or some such thing but... the effects of evolutionary conversion to atheism will last much longer than the effects of militant atheism. -
BurnTheShips
Evolution is about how, not what. It's hilarious how the Dawkins attacks religion for being absolutist and forcing conformity when the Dawkins itself despises anyone who doesn't share it's point of view. The Dawkins also reveals itself as shockingly ignorant on religious matters. Religion doesn't require a literalist biblical interpretation of creationism or any of that jazz, and it does not imply a lack of enthusiasm for anything scientific. Having such a discussion in the twentyfirst century is hilarious. The Dawkins' homily would have been much more apropos in the late nineteenth or early twentieth century when there were still some lights debating these things. Religion is about connecting with the infinite source of Being from which we came, in which we live, and to which we will return. In that respect even the atheist brigades , as long as they have some sense of awe before the panorama of all that is, participate in the religious experience.
That said, let me add that Dawkins will never be able to forge a movement out of that secular part of the pie of the type he lays out in his homily without it being..quite...religious.
Passionate hatred can give meaning and purpose to an empty life. Thus people haunted by the purposelessness of their lives try to find a new content not only by dedicating themselves to a holy cause but also by nursing a fanatical grievance. A mass movement offers them unlimited opportunities for both.
The uncompromising attitude is more indicative of an inner uncertainty than a deep conviction. The implacable stand is directed more against the doubt within than the assailant without.
What the intellectual craves above all else is to be taken seriously, to be treated as a decisive force in shaping history. He is far more at home in a society that weighs his every word and keeps close watch on his attitudes than in a society that cares not what he says or does. He would rather be persecuted than ignored.
Eric Hoffer.
Burn
-
IP_SEC
The Dawkins' homily would have been much more apropos in the late nineteenth or early twentieth century when there were still some lights debating these things.
I agree with this
Happy birth day BTS