God and the noughties
Richard Dawkins says his literary agent advised him against writing The God Delusion in the mid-90s, but all that changed with the presidency of George W. Bush. The rise of an evangelical president pressing for something like a theocratic approach was, according to Dawkins, the perfect context for a book addressing the dangers of religion in the modern world. He makes his comments in Robert Piggott's Newsnight analysis of how religion in Britain has changed in the first decade of the 21st century. Church closures, theological wars, fuzzy faith, moral relativism, new atheism, the crisis of faith: how will faith fare in the second decade of the new century?
For longer interviews with those featured in Robert's report, and more analysis too, see here.
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It is most unfortunate that Dawkins' book was published as a political statement to capitalize on an opportunity rather than a dissertation independent of events of the moment. What hypocricy. The real delusion of this book then was that Dawkins personally is a man of genuine intellectual integrity and not a cynical opportunist. Very disappointing to learn. That delusion is now dispelled, however it doesn't mean that his thesis isn't right.
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Markie, what a tremendously naive view! Whatever happened to the notion of striking while the iron is hot? Waiting for the perfect wave? Nothing is ever created in a vacuum (sit DOWN, creationists - we can do that argument somewhere else!), and getting The Moment is pretty important.
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Vacuum - A space entirely empty of matter.
Naughty, naughty Helio. I don't know of any creationist (or Big Bang exponent) who claims creation came from a vacuum. After all, a vacuum is part of space and came into existence at the creation or Big Bang, depending upon your belief.
OK, argue with the morons elsewhere but I just wanted to clear up that point.
As to Papa Dawkins, it doesn't really matter when his papal bulls are published.... the faithful are always ready and waiting for direction...
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We've all been very naughty here on W&T!
Remember, it was William's idea!
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PM
We could go back to the "consciousness thread." Then we'd really lose the will to live.
However, if we keep posting randomly, we'll drive the WW threads off the "Topical Posts" section.
Then we'd get some peace.
GV
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