The God Delusion

[Kyuuketsuki]

The subject of a "God" existing or not is one thing, but the subject of a "God" being a Christian one, Muslim one, etc. etc. etc. is pure idiocy and anyone who believes such nonsense is warped in the head.

I'd sort of agree with that, but warped is no the right word, lack of information would be more suitable.

I'll stick with my first opinion if it's all the same thanks.

There are many gods that are or have been claimed to exist. You believe in only one of them and (as is frequently said around these parts) once you understand why it is you reject those others gods you will understand why it is we reject yours.

Well, actually, I believe in all the gods. Check my introduction thread where I explain my position. Comparative mythology/religion is my own field of expertise, which is why I feel the GD is weak, or rather Dawkins analysis is, to be blunt (and please don't flame me for this, I'm only stating my opinion), ignorant.

So you study fairy tales ... what do you want? A medal? Again I think Dawkins nailed it in "The God Delusion" and I say that as a recovering ex-Catholic.

There is usually only one authoritative set of scriptures for a given god/religion ... in the case of Christianity that is The Bible and any argument that you need to experience more than just reading the bible sails perilously into "No True Scotsman" fallacy waters.

The problem is, there shouldn't be any books to begin with. In most religions the writing down of anything regarding the nature of god or of spirituality is a sacred taboo.

That's all well and good but the fact is that billions of humans today DO seem to partly or wholly base their belief on those written scriptures.

So what you find is that these texts are not written by Oral teachers, the prophets or the priests, but by certain secular interests groups which seek to monopolize the "use of God" as a source of authority in society.

You may well be right, I've long thought that the top dogs in religions are probably as lacking in religious belief as I am but again you're still dealing with a lot of ordinary people who do believe those scriptures and can be coerced to do many things in the name of them.

Jesus never wrote a word down, nor Muhammad, nor the Buddha. Neither did the Druids, the Brahmins, Zoroaster or the thousands of other religious teachers that have walked the earth.

I see no reason to believe Jesus ever existed, Mohammed was apparently a paedophile and to be brutally honest I don't care much about the rest.

The taboo on writing is one the most powerful taboo's withing a religious culture. (Immediate excommunication, or even death in some cases)

By the written communication profligate Catholic Church?

Personally I think he nailed it absolutely, 100% spot on and interestingly I note that it tends to be those with something to defend (those whose views/faiths Dawkins attacks that tend to take that stance).

Well that's your opinion. Fair enough, I just felt it was lightweight, it's a good book for the lay person, but I prefer a bit more detail.

Well as long as we're just talking opinion ...

BTW, it's awfully difficult to tell who you are addressing in your relies ... can I ask that you try to show who it is your talking to (much as I have)?

Kyu