On TV: The Trouble with Atheism

[Snoopy]

It seems that Hitler was embracing a more Atheistic line of reasoning than a Christian one, IMHO.

Hi,

Well what he brought about certainly wasn't anything to do with the central teaching of Jesus (the Golden Rule) was it?

s.

 

[juantoo3]

Kindest Regards, Seattlegal!

The program is now up on youtube for those who didn't catch it:

Thanks so much for the attempt. This site is blocked at work, and my antiquated dial-up modem isn't too happy with the format. I'll be forever just trying to watch the first episode (already spent ten minutes to see a broken up one minute segment before I quit). Drat!

 

[juantoo3]

[*]The search for an Atheistic morality based upon reason. {doesn't it all come down to the Principle of Reciprocity, or The Golden Rule}

I'm still grappling with that one...I still think it is latent religious conditioning.

[*]The idea put forward that science employs metaphors to explain concepts just as much as religion does, which leads towards scientific theories being expanded beyond their scientific limits.

Which is what makes parables and similies such valuable teaching tools.

[*]The idea that the potential for novelty spreads recessively throughout a given population until it reaches a "critical mass," which leads to a "sudden manifestation of novelty." This would run contrary to the idea of natural selection being the "driving force" behind evolution. What exactly is the "driving force" behind the sudden manifestation of novelty, then?[/list]
Lots of stuff to chew on, here!

Hmmm, "sudden manifestation of novelty"? Is that like..."something from nothing?" The ultimate wellspring? The source of all? The Grand Unified Theory? The singularity prior to the Big Bang?


the G-d particle?

 

[arthra]

I very much liked both videos on the Trouble with Atheism because it rasied the issues for modern society quite well and the need recognized for a basis for morality.

- Art

 

[flowperson]

Seattle...thanks for posting the youtube links.

I would tend to land on the side of those who assume a rational origin for universal structures. In my feeble imagination, I cannot comprehend that such effectively functioning material infrastructures do not have a divine intelligence behind them. The mystery of it all keeps drawing me towards it.

BTW..I once participated in a seminar with John Polkinghorne and he had a curious habit of staring at you as if you were some sort of lab specimen whenever you stated something that he clearly stood at odds with.

thanks again....flow....

 

[Caimanson]

Imo, atheism can sometimes be a religion, but it is always a faith.
I think the problem with atheism, is that their model/idea of god is conditioned by religious thinking.
Perhaps if there were more alternative views of god and the meaning of life, like for example the idea of an impersonal god with no strings attached, no certainty/uncertainty of afterlife.

The problem is that we like certainty, so traditional theism and atheism feel to me like human creations, determined by human nature.