Darwin and the case for 'militant atheism'

[Xipe Totec]

(CNN) -- On November 24, 1859, the first edition of a book that would shake the most deeply established beliefs about life was published in London. What would eventually be known as "The Origin of Species" was the opening shot in a debate that hasn't ended, even 150 years later.

In a series of books starting in 1976 and in his 2002 TED Talk, biologist Richard Dawkins has explored the implications of Darwin's work. In "The Selfish Gene," Dawkins wrote, "Living organisms had existed on earth, without ever knowing why, for over 300,000 million years before the truth finally dawned on one of them. His name was Charles Darwin."

Watch the TED Talk by Richard Dawkins

http://www.cnn.com/2009/OPINION/11/23/dawkins.darwin.atheism/index.html


Let me be clear: I am not an atheist; I am a deist. Nevertheless, as a scientist, I understand the atheist viewpoint.

Besides, two of my sons are atheists. How can I not respect their beliefs? :shrug:

[Synnical]

1. There is no such thing as "militant atheism" and atheism is not a belief

"ATHEIST is really a thoroughly honest, unambiguous term, it admits
of no paltering and no evasion, and the need of the world, now as
ever, is for clear-cut issues and unambiguous speech."
-- Chapman Cohen

-From AANews

-Cindy in Fort Lauderdale

[Xipe Totec]

2. I'm guessing you didn't bother to watch the Dawkins video

And you can believe what you want; it doesn't bother me.

[Synnical]

3. I viewed it, just because Dawkins voices the phrase does not make it so

Okay, I recant. Dawkins is a "militant atheist". Seems like an oxymoron to me. }(

-Cindy in Fort Lauderdale

[Xipe Totec]

4. Likewise,

Just because Chapman Cohen says it, does not make it so. :hi:

[vixengrl]

5. The "militance" of atheism as one might say lies in how one speaks about it--

for me, I am an "out" atheist. My family is not a family of strong believers or church-affiliated people. When I say I don't believe, it's not a thing. My husband is the son of basically rural Italian very Catholic and actually, pretty old people who immigrated to Philadelphia. That he looked at all the evidence, read all the science, and decided, even if his parents wanted to kick his ass out of their house when he was a teenager because of it--that he was an atheist and that was that, (let alone how he managed to fund his education and get his college degree on his own with so little of their support) is amazing to me. What Dawkins is talking about by "militant atheism" appeals to me--sposo mio has lived it. His mom asked him if he was a finocc' and threw his books out on the porch.

Me, my parents were more concerned that I was a libertine than that I was an atheist when I was college-age. That I was religiously infidel--so what, who isn't? That someone might notice I was out with boyfriends to all hours--this was an issue! That I was not going to church?--Well, I never did!

As for my atheism now, it borders on militance. If the religious want to front ridiculous boobs like Sarah Palin, I don't have even a qualm about rejecting her. She is dumb and religiously dumb. I want politicians who understand at least basic science, and understand evolution, and I really groan a little when I hear appeasing dialogue that sometimes holds religion as a deciding factor in---anything.

Let's call my stance "militant". I say a "god" as understood by history is unlikely, and I would defy any proponent of such a God to do more than "coulda, shoulda, woulda." Such a God shoulda existed. Woulda done this and that. But really?


It's too much hypothetical--is-a no God.

[Xipe Totec]

6. My experience is very similar to yours

By most people's definition I would be considered an atheist myself, since I do not believe in the God described by most organized religions.

[and-justice-for-all]

7. There is not such thing as militant atheism...

Militant means hostility or military like action, that is not compatible with Atheism IMO.

and Atheism is a lack of belief, perhaps "perspective" is a better choice of words.

[Warpy]

9. What believers say when they say "militant atheist"

is that a person isn't content to sit and be slandered by know-nothing believers and speaks up to defend himself.

Any atheist that doesn't smile and nod and give them tacit approval and perfect religious consensus is a militant atheist.

After all, speaking up rocks the foundation of their world. Never mind that world is really built on quicksand.

[and-justice-for-all]

10. Oh silly me, I completely forgot....

LOL.

I guess I am a "militant atheist" then..But I prefer the label "Fuck you and your invisible friends, Atheist)

[onager]

11. If I'm a Militant Atheist, I want a uniform!!!

Preferably one of those spiffy camo outfits with a beret, as issued by the classier Third World dictatorships.

Then I want to become Militant Atheist Commissar for Internal Security, so I can start building my chain of Camp Happyfaces For Religious Re-education. (Franchises available, especially in Utah.)

For any lurking believers...

:sarcasm:

[and-justice-for-all]

12. Ha! MARCH!!! nt

[Xipe Totec]

13. You don't want camo; you want a gaudy uniform

If you're going to fight, clash!

-Robin Williams.

[Warpy]

8. Darwin was an educated and wealthy bloke

who had obviously had his imagination jump started by the quasi evolutionary theory proposed by Aristotle (who thought that living things and nonliving things were intimately related and evolved each other, moving toward his idea of perfection) and Carolus Linnaeus, whose work on taxonomy and developing the hierarchy within, caused him to develop a divinely ordered theory of evolution.

Darwin just had the wherewithal to take a round the world cruise and go home and write the book that expanded both of those theories and gave them a natural, non divine origin that didn't particularly have perfection as its goal, only survival.

It's the latter point, not just a theory of evolution, that made his book such a blockbuster that's still being condemned by uneducated and witless clergy.

Good on you for your attitude toward your sons. Belief or unbelief in others is not our job. We can only tell them who we are.