jacob
Junior Member
Posts: 68
Likes: 6
|
Post by jacob on Mar 23, 2018 7:22:31 GMT
I had no idea the God Delusion was so disliked by the philosophical community
|
|
alex1
Junior Member
Posts: 60
Likes: 18
|
Post by alex1 on Mar 23, 2018 7:24:27 GMT
My undergrad degree was Philosophy. When I read weak arguments in The God Delusion, I just reminded myself that Dawkins is a scientist, not a philosopher and kept reading. Same as Carl Sagan in that respect. It has good parts and not-so-good parts. I just took the good and ignored the rest. I have no particular opinion or emotional investment in the man himself, either positive or negative, and am not sure why others do
|
|
jacob
Junior Member
Posts: 68
Likes: 6
|
Post by jacob on Mar 23, 2018 7:25:12 GMT
I read it as a scientific approach to a philosophical question and not a philosophical text itself. With that in mind, I found the reading much more profound.
|
|
alex1
Junior Member
Posts: 60
Likes: 18
|
Post by alex1 on Mar 23, 2018 7:25:36 GMT
Yep. Much the way I read Sagan's Demon-Haunted World. Both of those books were written for the general public, not academia. As such, I found no reason to regret reading either of them. When I want to read some actual philosophy, I know where to look.
|
|
jacob
Junior Member
Posts: 68
Likes: 6
|
Post by jacob on Mar 23, 2018 7:26:19 GMT
But I have to ask out of curiosity, which arguments did you find weak?
|
|
alex1
Junior Member
Posts: 60
Likes: 18
|
Post by alex1 on Mar 23, 2018 7:26:49 GMT
I wish I could be specific, but it was a long time ago when I read it. I just recall occasionally thinking things like, 'Well, not really, but close enough.' I do still have the book, so if you like I could flip through it and try to remember what I thought was weak.
|
|
jacob
Junior Member
Posts: 68
Likes: 6
|
Post by jacob on Mar 23, 2018 7:27:05 GMT
If you have the time, go right on ahead
|
|
alex1
Junior Member
Posts: 60
Likes: 18
|
Post by alex1 on Mar 23, 2018 7:27:34 GMT
I'll see what I can come up with. It may take some time. It's a pretty long book.
|
|
Clovis Merovingian
Prestige/VIP
Elder
Posts: 2,698
Likes: 1,758
Meta-Ethnicity: Anglo-American
Ethnicity: Deep Southerner
Country: My State and my Region are my country
Region: The Deep South
Location: South Carolina
Ancestry: Gaelic (patrilineal), English, Ulster Scots/Scots Irish, Scottish, German, Swiss German, Swedish, Manx, Finnish, Norman French/Quebecois (distantly), Dutch (distantly)
Taxonomy: Borreby/Alpine/ Nordid mix
Y-DNA: R-S660/R-DF109
mtDNA: T1a1
Politics: Conservative
Religion: Christian
Hero: Andrew Jackson, Thomas Jefferson, James K. Polk
Age: 30
Philosophy: I try to find out what is true as best I can.
|
Post by Clovis Merovingian on Mar 23, 2018 10:51:58 GMT
I had no idea the God Delusion was so disliked by the philosophical community You're right about that. My philosophy professor who I think was an atheist tore that book a new arsehole in class. I've never read it and I'm not a philosophy expert so I can only tell you what my professor stated. Apparently Dawkins straw manned Thomas Aquinas's argument for God to a pathetic degree and didn't represent the argument in a fair or competent light. That seemed to be his complaint, I don't know myself.
|
|
xero_art
New Member
Posts: 20
Likes: 10
Country: USA
Politics: Liberal
Religion: Christian
Hero: Batman
Age: 27
|
Post by xero_art on Mar 25, 2018 8:11:53 GMT
That's very true. From what I remember, the most damning thing about The God Delusion is that it is a book that seeks to disprove God or promote atheism, however you want to look at it. However, it takes the position of the defense rather than the prosecution on the question of burden of proof. As an apology for atheism it isn't terrible. But, he ends up arguing with ludicrous theism, ignoring the reality that the Catholic Church has accepted atheism since 1950(50 years before he published his book), forgetting that it was a Jesuit priest who first theorized the Big Bang as a possible beginning of our universe, quoting Einstein as an example of Science of Religion when Einstein himself believed in a God, using baseless quotable quips to insult religion childishly(“Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by the rulers as useful”), and, most damningly, just being an overall smug atheist proselytizer.
|
|
|
Post by Elizabeth on Mar 25, 2018 8:20:14 GMT
I never heard of this book. This would definitely be something I'd read though.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
|
Post by Deleted on Mar 25, 2018 8:51:36 GMT
I own this book but I didn't had time to read it.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
|
Post by Deleted on Apr 4, 2018 15:37:36 GMT
Yep. Much the way I read Sagan's Demon-Haunted World. Both of those books were written for the general public, not academia. As such, I found no reason to regret reading either of them. When I want to read some actual philosophy, I know where to look. and where would that be
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
|
Post by Deleted on Apr 4, 2018 15:39:59 GMT
That's very true. From what I remember, the most damning thing about The God Delusion is that it is a book that seeks to disprove God or promote atheism, however you want to look at it. However, it takes the position of the defense rather than the prosecution on the question of burden of proof. As an apology for atheism it isn't terrible. But, he ends up arguing with ludicrous theism, ignoring the reality that the Catholic Church has accepted atheism since 1950(50 years before he published his book), forgetting that it was a Jesuit priest who first theorized the Big Bang as a possible beginning of our universe, quoting Einstein as an example of Science of Religion when Einstein himself believed in a God, using baseless quotable quips to insult religion childishly(“Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by the rulers as useful”), and, most damningly, just being an overall smug atheist proselytizer. thanks for the review , dont wana read it anymore
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
|
Post by Deleted on Apr 5, 2018 17:45:09 GMT
I had no idea the God Delusion was so disliked by the philosophical community Excuse me, do you mean by this philosophical community? If you say about the most part of philosophical community, so the answer, mainly, is in non-philosophical character of the book. Dawkins is biologist, not a philosopher. His main philo claim that 'God is a complex being, and a complex being couldn't be at the beginning'. I understand what Dawkins wants to say, but his explanations seem to be very common. There are many objections on his thesis were, and one of this by Richard Swinburne in his 'The Existence of God' (2004, last revised), where he argued about simplicity of God. Also, in the book Swinburne made a pretty compact determination of God. Dawkins is not a bad guy, but I think that he and his companions of atheism accuse Christian not really honest. In last times Christianity is always under the pressure in all the sins of humanity, but it seems to be wrong. The former mafia leaders capture the World today as Jesuits yesterday. Truly believers should be released of all these crap, and in this sense the philosophy of religion has to be abandoned of all these biologists, physicians, geologists, archaeologists, paleontologists as longs as they are just in their subjects only.
|
|