Declaring Myself
I was on my morning constitutional through the blogosphere when I happened upon Andrew's post about his Atheist Declaration.He got the format from Sabio at Triangulations which is a pretty interesting blog that I should devote some more time to peruse. Anyway I thought it was interesting enough and decided to go ahead and declare myself! This is my the result...
Your Atheism Positions
I suppose that this demonstrates that Ricahrd Dawkins would shake his head in disapproval of my atheism. I think that religion really authentically helps some people and that without it a few would wither like sun baked weeds. Naturally I think the reverse is true, that many are hindered by the way it presents existence. Still, I am far from militant and even avoid advertising my inclinations on belief. I suppose I do no favors to the community of my fellow skeptics because I hide my light under a bushel.
As I understand it one of the pushes from the New Atheists ,people like Dawkins, Sam Harris and Christopher Hitchens, is to demonstrate that secularists are moral people too. We don't typically stomp on babies around fires with demons while drinking blood from puppy skulls. Furthermore I think they want to demonstrate that religion hinders your growth and leaves you a hollow fake individual. I don't necessarily agree. I agree that that is what it did to me, but not so much to others.
So that's me so far, I do expect that this with evolve with time, but for the time being here I am.
Posted by Marcus
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10:03 AM
6 comments:
Well, maybe Dawkins understands that not everyone is like him.
Well written. It is a good exercise, eh?
“We don't typically stomp on babies around fires with demons while drinking blood from puppy skulls.”
Is it a bad thing that I laughed out loud at that? Religious satire just gets more and more funny these days.
I like your point of view on Atheism. I am not very familiar with Dawkins, but I have heard him call for “militant Atheism.” That phrase just strikes me as contradictory if you are trying to point out the flaws in religion. It comes off as extremist on the other end of the spectrum, but maybe I misunderstood what he was trying to say.
"they want to demonstrate that religion hinders your growth and leaves you a hollow fake individual"
I have to say, I agree with that evaluation. Maybe I'm being cynical, but "hollow" and "fake" accurately describes the overwhelming mentality I came across in Provo, UT. To be a good mormon, you have to be Mormon first, and yourself second.
Sabio,
Yes it was a good exercise, thanks for coming up with it. Yes I think Dawkins is flexible enough to realize that we all come with our own histories and experiences with religion and faith. I think his frustration comes from the overwhelming tide of power derived from those who rally under the banner of faith. He sees it as a threat to reason and in many cases harmful to science and human progression. That's perhaps an over simplification, but it seems to sum it up. That's why I think he would disapprove of the way I conduct my own silent skepticism, I'm not helping to advance the cause of progress as he sees it.
Anyway, thanks again, it was fun.
Happy Lost Sheep,
I spent a good long time on that sentence, trying to craft the most horrifically absurd image I could. I'll count your lol as a success.
Hypatia,
How was that we ever survived Provo?
I just don't know. It could've been worse for us though. Imagine if you became inactive BEFORE leaving Provo. ick
I am still laughing at it...don't we have a blogger award thingy like they do over in the bloggernacle? I think we should have a satire subcategory and put your post in it. Great stuff.
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