Democratic Underground Latest Greatest Lobby Journals Search Options Help Login
Google

The Designer of the Intelligent Designer

Printer-friendly format Printer-friendly format
Printer-friendly format Email this thread to a friend
Printer-friendly format Bookmark this thread
Home » Discuss » DU Groups » Science & Skepticism » Atheists and Agnostics Group Donate to DU
 
Tobin S. Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Nov-08-09 03:06 AM
Original message
The Designer of the Intelligent Designer
I'm reading Michael Shermer's book Why Darwin Matters: The Case Against Intelligent Design and it just struck me as absurd. Books like that should not have to be written. All of that energy, paper, and time wasted on something that should not even be arguable, i.e reality. However, we live in a world where the best selling book of all time is a work of fiction that 2.1 billion people in today's world believe is the literal truth and the words of a god. We live in a world where only 17% of the population thinks that all religion is bunk. I guess that's a little more absurd.

I've gone on a reading marathon lately. For a long time I was an agnostic, but I didn't bother to educate myself about skepticism, science, and atheism. I just didn't believe in religion. A couple of months ago I borrowed Cosmos by Carl Sagan from my step-dad and my spare time has been filled with reading since then. I've read three of Sagan's books, a book about atheism by Eric Maisel, a book about mental illness by Tracy L. Harris, and I'm currently about half way through the above mentioned Shermer book. On deck I have another book by Shermer and a book by Victor J. Stenger called The New Atheism: Taking a Stand for Science and Reason. If you've read Stenger's book I'd be interested in hearing your reviews. How does New Atheism differ from the Regular Ol' Atheism?
Refresh | 0 Recommendations Printer Friendly | Permalink | Reply | Top
immoderate Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Nov-08-09 05:06 PM
Response to Original message
1. I went to a lecture by Stenger. He was great.
He was plugging a previous book God: The Failed Hypothesis, I think. Stenger, being a top physicist, and a real scientist, has some insights into the nature of reality that give some weight to his views.

--imm
Printer Friendly | Permalink | Reply | Top
 
Warpy Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Nov-09-09 12:25 AM
Response to Original message
2. New Atheists are just old atheists who no longer feel compelled
Edited on Mon Nov-09-09 12:41 AM by Warpy
to stay silently in the closet to make believers in bunk feel a little more secure. New atheists are old atheists who are speaking up when some believer starts talking smack and dehumanizing atheists.

That's why they're freaking out. Believing in bunk requires perfect consensus.
Printer Friendly | Permalink | Reply | Top
 
phantom power Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Nov-09-09 10:43 AM
Response to Reply #2
4. Yes. New Atheists = "Atheists posing us a serious threat"
Printer Friendly | Permalink | Reply | Top
 
laconicsax Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Nov-09-09 01:43 AM
Response to Original message
3. New atheists differ in one important respect.
They wrote books on the subject that sold a lot of copies.

If Harris, Dennett, Dawkins, and Hitchens had only sold as many copies as say, Michael Martin's The Case Against Christianity, they wouldn't have been branded the 'new atheists.'

'New atheism' is just regular ol' atheism with a bestseller.
Printer Friendly | Permalink | Reply | Top
 
DU AdBot (1000+ posts) Click to send private message to this author Click to view 
this author's profile Click to add 
this author to your buddy list Click to add 
this author to your Ignore list Sun Dec 22nd 2024, 08:46 PM
Response to Original message
Advertisements [?]
 Top

Home » Discuss » DU Groups » Science & Skepticism » Atheists and Agnostics Group Donate to DU

Powered by DCForum+ Version 1.1 Copyright 1997-2002 DCScripts.com
Software has been extensively modified by the DU administrators


Important Notices: By participating on this discussion board, visitors agree to abide by the rules outlined on our Rules page. Messages posted on the Democratic Underground Discussion Forums are the opinions of the individuals who post them, and do not necessarily represent the opinions of Democratic Underground, LLC.

Home  |  Discussion Forums  |  Journals |  Store  |  Donate

About DU  |  Contact Us  |  Privacy Policy

Got a message for Democratic Underground? Click here to send us a message.

© 2001 - 2011 Democratic Underground, LLC