Hello.
Firstly, Richard Dawkins is great. I love reading his books and find him for the most part a very fascinating and charming man. If I was forced by some supernatural creature to criticise Dawkins personality or else die, all I would say is that his choice of pose for most photographs is a tad too 'Brent'.
That said, I will now like to express as thriftily as I can what I consider to be the criticism to which Dawkins has no answer, regarding his philosophy.
Evolution: All animals are as they are because this is how they have adapted to survive.
Humans (also animals) have developed religious belief.
Richard Dawkins says this is because the humans have been poisoned by religious ideas, or religious 'memes' as he puts it.
Now, regardless of the fact that there is not the slightest bit of evidence today for memes, what he is saying is that human free-will has been exploited by religious crazies, and what he hopes is that human free-will can one day overcome this through education and we will all one day be enlightened athiests.
My issue is with this belief in free-will. There is no evidence for it. Nobody knows if they do the things they do because they choose to, or because it was the only thing they were ever going to do, like any other animal - a situation arises and the human or hamster in question will respond to it as nature intended. It feels like we make our decisions, it feels like we think, like we decide, but do we not just end up doing what comes naturally? It cannot be proven that our free-will is anything other than an illusion. But Richard Dawkins talks confidently about how we can choose to take control of our lives. This is blind faith
I am an athiest, pretty much, but then a man with my genetics and upbringing predictably would have been, just as a man from the slums of Rio would believe that there was a God, though perhaps not now as Holland have just gone 2-1 up against Brazil in the World Cup quarter finals.
There is no proof of free-will. Everything is as it is because that is how it was always going to be since the big bang started it all, religious belief included. It might be this way because of free-will, but prove it to me. You can't.
Richard Dawkins faith in free-will is as blind as a Christians to God.
Cecco
Firstly, Richard Dawkins is great. I love reading his books and find him for the most part a very fascinating and charming man. If I was forced by some supernatural creature to criticise Dawkins personality or else die, all I would say is that his choice of pose for most photographs is a tad too 'Brent'.
That said, I will now like to express as thriftily as I can what I consider to be the criticism to which Dawkins has no answer, regarding his philosophy.
Evolution: All animals are as they are because this is how they have adapted to survive.
Humans (also animals) have developed religious belief.
Richard Dawkins says this is because the humans have been poisoned by religious ideas, or religious 'memes' as he puts it.
Now, regardless of the fact that there is not the slightest bit of evidence today for memes, what he is saying is that human free-will has been exploited by religious crazies, and what he hopes is that human free-will can one day overcome this through education and we will all one day be enlightened athiests.
My issue is with this belief in free-will. There is no evidence for it. Nobody knows if they do the things they do because they choose to, or because it was the only thing they were ever going to do, like any other animal - a situation arises and the human or hamster in question will respond to it as nature intended. It feels like we make our decisions, it feels like we think, like we decide, but do we not just end up doing what comes naturally? It cannot be proven that our free-will is anything other than an illusion. But Richard Dawkins talks confidently about how we can choose to take control of our lives. This is blind faith
I am an athiest, pretty much, but then a man with my genetics and upbringing predictably would have been, just as a man from the slums of Rio would believe that there was a God, though perhaps not now as Holland have just gone 2-1 up against Brazil in the World Cup quarter finals.
There is no proof of free-will. Everything is as it is because that is how it was always going to be since the big bang started it all, religious belief included. It might be this way because of free-will, but prove it to me. You can't.
Richard Dawkins faith in free-will is as blind as a Christians to God.
Cecco
