The Holy Church of Charles Darwin.

Dia on 25/4/2006 at 12:47

Quote Posted by Strontium Dog

lunatic fringe.

Great song! I rather like Red Rider. :cheeky:

OrbWeaver on 25/4/2006 at 13:50

Quote Posted by Strontium Dog

Having said that, evolutionists are in some trouble in the US because several leading Darwinists (Dawkins I believe and a few others) have said that the theory of evolution means that God cannot exist.

Have you any citations for that?

I find it exceptionally unlikely that a respected, intelligent scientist like Dawkins would say something as daft as "evolution disproves the existence of God".

Para?noid on 25/4/2006 at 14:26

Quote Posted by Strontium Dog

Dawkins is a tedious cock. I saw his documentary "The Root Of All Evil" and I've never seen such a pointless, fanatical crusade against pointless fanatics in my life. He holds a serious grudge not just against organised religion, but deism itself. A good scientist will try and show there IS a god before he tries to show there isn't.

jay pettitt on 25/4/2006 at 14:36

Dawkins is one half respected scientist, one half manic and fevered hater of religion.

Quote Posted by "Dawkins"

Faith is the great cop-out, the great excuse to evade the need to think and evaluate evidence. Faith is belief in spite of, even perhaps because of, the lack of evidence.

Quote:

Science offers us an explanation of how complexity (the difficult) arose out of simplicity (the easy). The hypothesis of God offers no worthwhile explanation for anything, for it simply postulates what we are trying to explain. It postulates the difficult to explain, and leaves it at that.

Quote:

Certainly I see the scientific view of the world as incompatible with religion, but that is not what is interesting about it. It is also incompatible with magic, but that also is not worth stressing. What is interesting about the scientific world view is that it is true...

and then there was...

Quote:

There's this thing called being so open-minded your brains drop out.

Headphones on 25/4/2006 at 14:52

I'm sure Dawkins would say that evolution makes belief in god redundant, but not that it disproves god's existence.

There are quite a lot of things you can't disprove.

Agent Monkeysee on 25/4/2006 at 15:29

Quote Posted by OrbWeaver

I find it exceptionally unlikely that a respected, intelligent scientist like Dawkins would say something as daft as "evolution disproves the existence of God".

I'd like to see a citation too but though respected and highly intelligent Dawkins is a massive jackass so I wouldn't really be surprised if he said something along those lines.

OrbWeaver on 25/4/2006 at 15:37

Quote Posted by jay pettitt

Dawkins is one half respected scientist, one half manic and fevered hater of religion.

He is certainly anti-religious, but I have seen litle evidence of him being a "manic".

The first two of your quotes are demonstratively true. Faith is belief without evidence (that is what defines it, as opposed to logical deduction), and an assumption of God does not explain anything (it just turns "we don't know much about the universe" into "we don't know much about God, who created the universe").

I agree that the last two quotes might be considered more subjective however (although I personally agree with their sentiment, they are certainly not beyond debate).

OrbWeaver on 25/4/2006 at 15:42

Quote Posted by Agent Monkeysee

I'd like to see a citation too but though respected and highly intelligent Dawkins is a massive jackass so I wouldn't really be surprised if he said something along those lines.

There is a difference between saying things that people don't like (which may make you into a "jackass" from some perspectives) and saying things which are clearly fallacious and very widely known as such even by relative newcomers to the field.

Evolution has nothing whatsoever to do with the existence of God: it doesn't prove it, it doesn't disprove it, it doesn't even mention it (except to point out that a supreme being is not required to explain biological facts).

Wyclef on 25/4/2006 at 15:49

Quote Posted by OrbWeaver

He is certainly anti-religious, but I have seen litle evidence of him being a "manic".

Well, there was the time he carved "4 REAL" into his arm

Para?noid on 25/4/2006 at 15:51

I just have the feeling that the notion of God or Gods is becoming increasingly redundant today. It just isn't a worthwhile consideration, since like many concepts, it cannot ever be known. Maybe it's close-minded of me, but I consider it analogous to the statement "there is nothing outside the universe". I can't actually imagine a system or entity outside of outside, because there is no reference, no laws that I understand to be compatible with it.

Which sucks, because I can see myself entering the horrible grey zone of losing my artistic imagination and knowning pathetic amounts of hard science with this line of reasoning. God, I want to die.